X-Men: Lost Feral
by KJAX89
Summary: In a world that hates and distrusts mutants, Logan discovers a new feral, but he's not the only one looking. Logan works to protect her from a world hunting to claim her while trying to figure out what makes this new mutant so special. AU
1. Chapter 1

Logan waited impatiently for the elevator, a frown on his face as he considered what he was doing. Rogers hadn't even wanted him to come on this mission. Busting up a HYRDA lab barely registered as something he cared about - illegal alien tech or not - but he'd been bored, out of beer, and too annoyed with Chuck to head back to the school. So he'd ignored the offer to stay back and joined the rest of the Avengers on the mission.

The lab had been out in the middle of nowhere in northern Pennsylvania. From outside an abandoned industrial park. Of course that was before the anti-aircraft guns had started firing and the HYRDA soldiers started pouring out. Hell he even spotted Viper, a few dozen HAMMER drones, and Taskmaster just to make things interesting.

Logan let Thor, Rogers, and Stark deal with that. He headed straight inside and did what he did best. They were just here to level the place anyway and Logan wanted the stretch. Besides ... HYRDA was still Nazi as far as he was concerned. He sliced his way through the first building without breaking stride.

When he got to the second building he spotted Clint firing arrows everywhere as Cage took his time slapping HYDRA soldiers around. But when he didn't spot Widow right away he paused, noticing her running along the outside of the fight and through a set of doors. Seeing Clint and Cage taking care of things Logan ran to cover Nat.

Once Logan got through the doors though he paused. While the buildings so far had looked like every other warehouse weapons depot he'd ever seen, these halls were different. Clean. White. Spartan. Sterile.

Only labs looked and smelled like this. One glance into the rooms down the hall was all it took. Logan's growl was on instinct. He hated labs.

Taking a sniff he easily located Widow's scent and started after her. Rogers hadn't mentioned anything about gathering intel but it wouldn't be a shock to find out Nat had her own agenda. Woman loved having her own private missions.

He knew he was catching up but as he came towards a fork he slowed. It took a moment for Logan to realized what had got him to stop when he knew Widow had made a right ... and that's when his mind caught up to his eyes: claw marks.

Logan walked closer to the wall and ran a hand over the five gauges set into the concrete. Following a few feet further down the left hall he noticed the claw marks jumped around ... from the floor to the walls. Hell even on the ceiling at one point. Something had been dragged this way and had put up one hell of a fight.

Logan glanced over his shoulder back towards the way he knew Widow had gone. With a shrug he followed the claw marks. If Nat could have her own little mission ... so could he.

Logan followed the claw marks and after shrugging off a few security turrets and even a laser grid, Logan had made his way to the end of hall and the elevator he was currently waiting for. When the elevator arrived he stepped in and before he could wonder which floor saw that there was only one button to push. As time passed he realized just how far down he must be going though no sooner did he think it the elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open.

If the sudden difference in the lab hallways above had gotten Logan to pause this definitely did. It was like someone had turned a single hallway into a bombshelter. Metal barricades and bulletproof glass jutted out of the walls to break up the single path ... along with the few dozen HYDRA soldiers pointing guns straight at him. He smirked just before he popped his claws and let out a roar as he rushed forward just as the first wave of bullets hit him.

The HYDRA guards never stood a chance. As Logan made his way through, slicing open doors as they slammed down he heard a shout over his own series of snarls, "SHOOT IT! SHOOT IT NOW!"

Logan assumed that particular order was directed at him and was sure to slice the idiot that yelled it next but when a roar that wasn't his hit him he actually stopped for a moment and managed to see six soldiers running away from him towards what must be the end of the hall where he once again heard that roar ... or almost a roar? It wasn't any he'd heard before, not deep enough or strong enough to be anyone he could think of, but it definitely sounded pissed. Then yet another metal barricade came down and cut off whatever he heard. Logan thought of the claw marks that had led him down here and with a roar of his own made quick work of the two dozen guards left in the now blood soaked hall.

Wolverine managed to slice through what he hoped was the final barricade and rushed into the space, not sure what to expect but what he saw was not something he ever would have expected.

The space wasn't very large, the walls a continuation the hall but practically bare stone and after about a dozen feet the space was broken by a series of metal bars and then opened up into what he suspected was an opened cell that was covered in the same claw marks he noticed upstairs. With this much blood everywhere Logan's nose wasn't much use but he could see in the dark just fine despite the limited light leading into the cell. In there he could easily make out be a number of bodies littered across the stone floor ... one or two pieces even making their way out it.

Now Logan's curiosity took over and he stalked into the cell glancing around expecting to see the body of whatever had made his job a little easier when he let out a snarl of pain as he felt a set of claws slice arcross his back. He slashed as he turned only to feel his legs burn from a series of deep cuts, Logan kicking out on instinct which earned a snarl of pain as Logan turned back towards the center of the cage - more cave as he stood in it - and find out who the hell was slicing him.

And standing there, hands up and clearly ready for a fight, was something new: a feline feral.

She was young. That was the first thing that struck Logan. The fact she was a panther standing on two feet actually the second. She was just shorter than he was and lean ... too lean if he had to guess. Her limbs looking a little too long for her body another mark of how young she probably was. Barely a teenager if that. The fur was dark ... darkest thing he'd maybe seen which made the glaring dark amber eyes and her strange markings stand out that much more. Logan raised an eyebrow, they almost look liked tear marks, or sharp daggers... those unusual triangular markings... Perfectly perpendicular decorating the bottom of those furious eyes.

A contrasting orange against the midnight black. OK so not a full panther then, he concluded as he caught sight of two more of such stripes on each of her arms. Her hair was long and the same color black though he noticed hints of orange and red in there, mostly at the tips. Her face looked mostly human, but then again definitely feline if she just changed the angle of her head... the hint of a muzzle likely doing it. It was hard to tell what she was wearing, the black compression shorts and top blending so completely with her fur. The third thing Logan finally noticed was that she was covered in blood, shaking, and it was her growl filling the space.

Logan figured she'd been clinging to the cieling above the cage door in hopes of surprising him. Best guess it had been what she'd done to those HYDRA soldiers currently littering the cave. Thinking of that he realized how he must have looked and while he stayed in a defensive stance withdrew his claws and slowly squatted down so that he was shorter than the smaller and clearly on edge feral.

"Hey kid. You got a name?" Logan's low, calm timber cut through the steady stream of growls but didn't do much to slow them down. That earned a sigh from him. He wasn't sure what the hell was going on but he really didn't want to wait to find out if there was more HYRDRA coming down here.

"Logan," he tried, this time taking off his cowl which at least got the kid to tilt her head as she clearly took him in though he noticed the quick look past him through the hole he'd come through. Logan glanced over his shoulder and back at the pantheress.

"I'm gettin' outta here. Wanna come with?" Logan's tone was low and gentle as he reached out a hand but that just got a new wave of growls as the pantheress moved a hand to her neck seemingly without thinking as Logan noticed the collar hidden against the dark fur and the metal cord attached to the wall behind her. That explained why she hadn't already made a run for it. Logan forced down a growl of his own. Assholes.

"Here ... lemme help with that. No one should be locked up like this," and as Logan popped a single claw to cut the kid free the smaller feral's hackles shot up and she latched her claw's into the extended forearm as she slashed with her other hand toward Logan's neck. Kid was fast but not faster than Wolverine and while he grimaced at the claws embedded in his arm he easily deflected the attempt at his neck and the next one aimed at his stomach.

With a growl the kid jumped back but she let out a snarl of pain as Logan saw her grip her side where he noticed she was bloodiest. The trembling was getting worse and she was taking deep breaths. Didn't take a genius to figure out why.

"You're hurt," Logan kept himself small but his tone wasn't gentle anymore, "we need to go now. Let me help you."

"No." Her voice was a bit deeper then he'd expected from a girl her size but it was soft. Hesitant almost.

"Not up for discussion." Logan was considering the best way to get this kid to trust him or at least cut her free.

"Not - not back." Logan's brow went up with that one. She thought he was taking her back to whatever place made this hole in the ground seem safer.

"Don't plan on it. I'm taking you someplace safe. Now let me get that damn collar off ya and let's get out of here." Logan was about to step closer when the pantheress lunged.

"NO!" Logan saw the lunge coming and sidestepped and while she managed to slice up his arms some more Logan swiped his claw and easily cut the cord, the kid stumbling forwards a few feet seemingly at the sudden lack of tension ... right before she rolled and snatched one of the guns left on the floor. She looked at Logan over the barrel of the rifle clearly trying to figure if this was some sort of trick while edging closer to the way out of the cell.

"Wanna trust me now? Cause unless you got someone else comin' I'm guessin' I'm your best ride outta here." Logan tried again with his arms raised.

"Trust ... no one ..." the girl breathed out, the gun trembling in her hands more of a concern than the gun itself. Logan took a slow but confident step forward.

"Not a bad motto kid. But I'm offering you a way out and someplace safe. You got a better option right now?" The pantheress seemed to consider that for a moment while Logan silently wondered how much longer before she hit the ground. Judging by the amount of blood she'd lost the feline had stood up for longer than he'd thought ... kid was tough.

"What's it gonna be?" Logan kept his eyes locked on the younger feral's, making it clear he wasn't going to force her, and after a few seconds the pantheress finally blinked.

"Kara." Logan smirked as he saw the muzzle begin to inch lower but threw his hands back up on instinct as a series of muffled gunshots filled the space. Both ferals looked at the other in surprise until the gun clattered to the flood and Kara reached over her shoulder to pull out a metallic looking dart, looking at Logan with a mix of confusion and anger, before dropping to the floor with a soft thud.

"Well this is awkward." Natasha's tone seemed casual as Logan's growl reverberated around the space. He knew the kid was still breathing but that didn't make him any less pissed ... not to mention Widow still had her gun out if not pointed directly at him.

"What the hell Widow. You popping kids now?" Logan moved to check on Kara but with an audible click the gun was now indeed trained on him.

"It'll be fine. But you need to leave this alone Wolvernine. Just head back upstairs. Your'e good at walking away and pretending something never happened if I remember our time correctly." Natasha smirked, never one to miss out on a chance on some good banter.

"I'm takin' the kid with me." Logan glared, "And I'm curious if you think you got enough left in that clip to take me down before I really get pissed."

Nat seemed to be considering the same thing and Logan didn't stop this time as he ripped off part of his uniform as he kneeled down to wrap Kara's still bleeding side. Black Widow kept her gun trained on him but didn't seem inclined to stop him. Yet.

"We really gonna do this Nat? Over a damn mutant kid?" Logan growled as he lifted the passed out pantheress in his arms.

"I can't just let you walk out of here Logan." Nat's tone changed as Logan started to walk past her.

"Sure you can. Or if it makes ya feel better, think of it as I'm letting you walk with both hands still in place." At this point Logan was already headed down the hall and towards the elevator but he didn't relax even as he stepped in and turned to see Natasha slowly shaking her head.

"It's not worth the trouble Logan." Natasha called out.

"Not to you." Logan rumbled to himself as the doors finally closed.

As the elevator rose, Logan ignored the calls on his comms from Rogers asking where he was. Logan muttered something about finding his own way back and that Nat needed some help in the lower level as he slashed the elevator button and tossed his comm as he walked out.

Last thing he needed was the kid going back with him to SHIELD after what he'd seen from Widow. After all ... he'd promised he was taking her someplace safe.


	2. Welcome to the Mansion

_**A/N: I'm going to use this space in the future to share updates and answer any questions you all leave. For now I don't want to spoil anything so going to let you discover this new AU as it unfolds. Also a thank you to Cheshire for the review and the encouragement to get back to writing.  
**_

* * *

"Let's see who we have here hmm?" Dr. McCoy said to no one in particular as his most recent patient was still slumbering somewhat fitfully on the examination table.

This wasn't the first time members of the X-Men had come in with a pickup - or a dozen - at odd hours. The fact it had been Logan himself who had brought in this particular mutant was noteworthy but the fact she was covered in blood sadly wasn't all that surprising.

He and Ororo had worked quickly to wash the young feral down and asses her injuries. Luckily the bullet wound in her side had been the most pressing but single serious injury and he'd handled that easily enough. Removing bullets and stitching wounds was something he was seeing far too often these days with new arrivals.

With the way things were out there for mutants the more they could bring to safety the better. With the recent election there seemed to be only three options for mutants: register and be tagged, Magneto's 'mutant sanctuary' Genosha, or hide. Xavier's had manager to stay hidden through Charles influence but who knew how long that could last. The X-Men did their best to be proactive but that wasn't showing much progress.

Hank shook his head and reminded himself he had a patient to help ... not the time for darker thoughts.

He typically preferred to actually speak with these new mutants, a sort of first round of intake if you will, to gauge their personalities, background, feelings, and sadly too often their trauma. He liked to think of himself as the welcoming committee who happened to check your vitals while you talked.

"Seems we finally have another feral in the house. How exciting." Hank continued, typing quickly into his notepad: Kara. Female. Approximately 11-12 years old. Feral/Feline/Panther mutation. From the way the bullet wound was healing along with her other cuts he put down accelerated healing. Further mutations ...

"We'll go with 'unknown for now' how about that." Hank finished warmly, wondering if his newest patient had any additional surprises.

"Now let's see how you've been getting on." With that Hank began a proper, full examination. He could tell she was clearly malnourished, which likely explained the slow healing of her wounds. There was one thing that caught his attention. On the girl's right shoulder was an odd series of four marks ... almost oval in shape. At first Dr. McCoy had thought they were burns. A deep frown appearing on his face whenever the specter of abuse entered his lab. Logan hadn't explained much once he'd handed the pantheress off to him but from the state of them both he knew she couldn't have come from anyplace good. But even if that were true, it didn't explain the marks. A wound this old should have healed by now on a feral.

"Let's try and solve this little mystery then. Don't mind me this won't hurt a bit." Hank picked up a scalpel with the hope of scraping off some skin to test and had just pressed the blade to one of the marks when he saw the girl's eyes shoot open and before he could even pull back Hank found her latched onto his back, the scalpel lodged in his thigh, and a set of claws at his throat.

"Hello to you too." Hank tried in a calm voice.

"Where?" which was paired by a surprisingly deep growl and a bit more pressure on the doctor's neck. Now Hank could have easily removed the young woman from his back with some minor injury but he didn't feel that was a good way to introduce himself.

"You're at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters," Hank could see from the girl's reflection in a mirror across from him that didn't mean much, "you're safe. That's what matters."

Kara growled at that. No place was safe. She was back in a lab. How? She tried remembering how she got here and not in that boring cave but it all seemed fuzzy. The last thing she remembered was speaking to - to ... what was his name again ...

"Maybe we can try this again, hmmm?" Hank's tone was as if his patient was just waking up still on the gurney, "maybe we can start with a name?"

"Where's Logan?" Her voice was calm but Dr. McCoy could sense the stress there and could almost feel her eyes shooting around the room.

"Professor Logan is on his way back down and I'm sure he's eager to see you too Miss ..." Hank managed to turn his head enough to meet the young feline's rather intense gaze.

"Kara ... They call me Kara."

Once Logan had been assured by Hank that the kid would be alright, Logan had gone to hose himself off and grab a beer. That had been interrupted by Chuck, despite it being close to 5am, asking what had happened on his Avenger's run. He'd just gotten to his fifth beer and Widow showing up when Charles had suggested he get down to the infirmary. Seemed Kara had woken up.

He'd ran downstairs, worried about what the kid might do waking up in an unfamiliar place, but smirked when he came in to find Hank taking the kid's pulse as he talked and she seemed content to stare up at him and listen.

"You alright Salem?" Logan's low growl seemed to fill the room though it took a second for Kara to realize who he was talking to. It turned out this doctor wasn't like the other one's she'd met. He was nice ... or at least did a really good job of pretending. Not to mention she'd never met a mutant doctor before. She had heard Logan coming but tilted her head to the side quizzically at the name and looked back at Dr. McCoy.

"It's a good thing. Trust me." The doctor assured her with a smile. Looking back at Logan and giving him a clear up and down inspection, Kara seemed to decide he was still trust worthy enough to slip off the table and head over to him. She found the sweats the doctor had given her kinda hot but definitely better than the gown-thingy she'd woken up in.

"She good to go Hank?" Logan asked as he gave Kara his own look over. Aside from walking a bit stiff and clearly still on edge the kid seemed OK.

"So long as she doesn't open any of her stitches I think she should be all healed up in the next couple of hours. But some food I think would be in order." Dr. McCoy called out as Logan and his newest shadow headed upstairs.

The pair seemed content to walk in silence is until Logan pushed the button for the elevator.

"Stairs." Logan raised an eyebrow at the growl and turned to see Kara looking uneasy for the first time.

"You got a problem with elevators?" Logan rumbled right back as the doors slid open.

"Stairs." Logan looked between the glare Kara was giving the inside of the elevator and quickly realized this wasn't worth the trouble.

"Stairs it is." Logan turned and kept walking down the hall until the stairs and headed up the dozen flights that lead to the main floor of the Xavier Institute.

This early in the morning the mansion was a fairly quite place. The mansion itself was large, with entire wings barely used by the 50 or so mutants currently living there, not to mention the acres of grounds and forest surrounding the place.

Kara was taking all of this in, tail slowly swaying in their wake, as she followed Logan around, neither saying much as they finally made their way into the spacious kitchen and Logan nodded towards a highchair at the island.

Logan checked the fridge and ignoring the time of day tossed half a rotisserie chicken and leftover veggies on a plate which he unceremoniously dropped in front of the waiting feline who had yet to take her eyes off of him.

"I ain' gonna harass you with questions Salem. Just eat for now." Kara seemed relieved at that. The doctor was nice but he asked a LOT of questions, most of which Kara hadn't really wanted or been able to answere. Without further prompting Kara tore into the chicken, hungrier than she'd realized ... Logan making himself a cup of coffee in time to toss the rest of the chicken on her plate.

"Why?" Kara's question came out between bites, her eyes back on Logan.

"Why what? Why I get you out of there?" Logan took the small nod between bites as a yes, "cause you needed help. That OK with you?"

Kara seemed to consider this novel idea and nodded again but for her part she had no idea what to make of any of this. I mean this place was definitely a step up from the hole in the ground. Food much better too. But that didn't mean she trusted any of it. She knew better. Adults had a funny way of seeming nice at the beginning.

Logan sipped his coffee as he watched the feline finish off her food. Kid could definitely eat. When she seemed to finally be slowing down he thought it safe to finally ask a few questions.

"So how'd you end up down in that hole?" Logan had waited till Kara had finished her second helping before getting to this. But he'd been the one to bring the kid in and he knew there we some things Xavier and the rest of the X-Men were gonna want to know.

Kara for her part just put down the piece of chicken she'd been eating and shifted her eyes back to Logan, the latter just staring back cooly holding his gaze. They did this for a while until Kara dropped her gaze and Logan noted her tail come to a slow pendulum.

"You know who it was that was holdin' you?" Kara shook her head, her large amber eyes looking across at Logan again but this time somewhat warily.

"They ever make you do anythin' you didn't wanna do? Ever take you outta that cell?" Kara looked down at her plate and nodded her head this time.

"They take you outside?" Logan tried but Kara rumbled out a low 'no.'

"They take you upstairs ... to the doctors?" Kara's fists clenched as she slowly nodded, her gaze now fixed squarely on the floor.

Logan let out a sigh as he once again considered how young she looked. Place must have been hell for her.

"You got anyone out there lookin' for you kid? A parent ... someone you want me to call?" Kara's tail now came to a complete stop. The pantheress' brow furrowed as she opened her mouth a few times, shuddering noises escaping her... as if trying to think of the best way to answer until finally Logan put his hand up.

"Don' worry bout it Salem. I don't really care where you come from or what you mighta done. Just had to be able to say that I tried. Like I told ya, you're safe here." Logan's tone much softer now as Kara seemed to relax a bit as she hoped the questioning was over though Logan could tell the kid was tense as a wire.

Logan figured Kara wouldn't know much ... but that just made the mystery of what a group like HYDRA wanted with this kid, not to mention Nat, that much more confusing. As far as he could tell she was just another mutant kid with no place to go.

And speaking of mutant kids ...

"Hi I'm Kitty! Oh wow your fur is so dark and pretty! Logan is she new?" This all came out rapid fire as seemingly out of nowhere a very young, button nosed, brown haired, and wide eyed PJ clad little girl appeared on the stool next to Kara who almost jumped clear to the next chair at the sudden explosion of noise. Kara, hackles still raised and tail thrashing, eyed Kitty warily as she shot Logan a look clearly asking for help.

"Kitty meet Kara. She's gonna be stayin' with us for a bit. You wanna show her round?" Logan asked with a smirk as Kara shot him a look of clear panic as Kitty let out a peal of 'yes! yes! yes!' and grabbing Kara by the hand practically dragged her out of the kitchen and straight through a wall earning a brief snarl of surprise from Kara before the two were gone.

Logan shook his head, smirk still in place, as he cleared the dishes. Though his smirk didn't last long. Widow had very clearly wanted Kara and in turn that meant either the Avenger's - or more likely SHIELD - wanted her as well. But why? And what was a kid doing in the basement of a HYRDRA base locked in a cage?

Considering how little he knew Logan tossed the dishes in the washer and headed for his room. He needed to make a few calls.

...

Kara did her best to just follow in Kitty's wake as she led the way on a full tour of the mansion.

"Yea so that kitchen is where we eat - unless it's nice and then we get to eat outside on the porch - and down there are all the classrooms but that's kinda boring, unless Ororo calls up some thunder if Kurt or somebody falls asleep in class cause that's pretty funny, and over here is the game room we got two TV's and a bunch of games and pool and stuff so this is the best room in the house oh! unless you count my room! Yea come on I wanna show you my room! Oh I wonder if anyone else is up I wanna introduce you to everyone! But you gotta promise to be my friend cause we met first right!" Kitty beamed as all of this seemed to come out in one breath.

"C'mon! C'mon! C'mon!"

Kitty's room was a mess of colors and clothes, mostly pink, and Kara stood in the door just to take it all in.

"You like it?" Kitty spun on the spot, holding her breath for a moment clearly hoping her new friend approved. That of course didn't mean she wasn't practically bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement as the panther's eyes studied every nook and cranny of the room.

"It - it's a lot of color." Kara rumbled, earning a big grin from Kitty. She liked Kara's voice it reminded her of Logan's.

"Thanks!"

"Whoze dat?" Kara's fur shot up once again as yet another messy reddish brown haired girl's head appeared from the mess of pillows and blankets from the bed on the other side of the room.

"Marie we got a new friend!" Kitty practically squealed as she ran over and jumped on her roommate's bed, earning a low groan from Marie who fell back onto her pillows with a huff.

"Too early. Intro's later." Kara picked up a strong southern accent coming from this new girl as she inched a little more into the room. Her tail swaying just slightly. She was really gonna stay here?

"But Marie -"

"Rogue." the southern girl snapped from under her mess of hair, earning a roll of the eyes from Kitty.

"Yeah yeah WHATEVER! she's really into code names now." the little brunette whispered to Kara who nodded as if she understood, all the while watching Kitty start plummeting this Rogue repeatedly with a pillow.

"C'mon you gotta see her! She's like Rahne - but a cat!" Rogue popped an eye open at that but then shot straight up at actually catching sight of Kara whose ears flipped down as she took a quick step back and braced herself not so subtlety in a ready position.

"Wow. You look SO cool." Rogue - who seemed to not recognize that Kara was a moment away from simply bolting from the room or taking on all comers - had dropped down from her bed at this point and slowly approached Kara who eyed her like everything else in this place ... like she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing.

"What's ya name?" Rogue asked clearly now mesmerized by Kara's slowly swaying tail on the floor. For her part Kara slowly came out of her stance as she realized Rogue didn't seem interested in hurting her.

"Her name's Kara! Professor Logan says she's gonna be stayin' with us." Kitty beamed. Rogue finally moved past the tail and gave Kara a better look over, something Kara wasn't a big fan of. She hated when people looked at her like that even if Rogue and Kitty seemed ... OK.

"Aren' you hot with all that fur?" Rogue asked gesturing at the sweats, earning a scowl from Kitty.

"Rogue! That wasn't very nice. I like her fur." Kitty said very matter of factly but Rogue shook her head quickly.

"I didn' mean nothin' by it. Just thought she was hot wearin' all those clothes with fur is all." Rogue defended to her roommate.

"Ummm," Rogue and Kitty had seemed ready to go at it as Kara cut in, "I am kinda hot."

"Well change then. I think I got a -WOAH NOT RIGHT NOW" Rogue and Kitty had screamed together, hands slapped over their eyes as the panther had nonchalantly kicked off her sweats and was almost free of the luckily oversized sweatshirt. Kara let the sweatshirt drop back into place as she cocked her head in confusion. I mean they DID tell her she could change.

After a few laughs from the two, Rogue smiled triumphantly at Kitty but the little brunette had already moved on to the next exciting thing.

"Oh I can dress you! Oh please please let me dress you! Jean and Amara never let me help get clothes for new students it'll be so much fun!" Kara looked to Rogue as the only other person for help but she had just rolled her eyes to go back to bed and spent the rest of the hour perched on a mound of pillows and blankets laughing and tossing out comments as Kitty did her best imitation of a fashion show with a very unwilling Kara as her model.

After plenty of exasperated begging from Kitty and an intervention from Rogue, the little brunet had finally relented and let Kara breath as she came out of their closet in a pair of Kitty's black running shorts and a loose grey tank top of Rogue's that came down about half-way of her slightly longer torso.

For the first time since waking up, Kara felt herself relax a little. Everyone here was just - just so nice. A bit weird ... but nice. It was still hard to believe and Kara did her best to suppress the feeling that this all an act before something terrible would happen.

"You look great! You sure you don't want some shoes? Jean always says that an outfit isn't complete without some shoes." Kitty was clearly imitating Jean's tone but a nudge from Rogue got Kitty to pause long enough to see Kara smiling for the first time even if a little uncertainly.

"Don't need shoes." As Kara put her foot, with it's raised heel and sharp claws, next to Kitty's soft pink one.

"Oh - " Kitty started but Rogue saved her.

"Ya look great. Pretty sure breakfast is gonna be ready by now and we need to beat the boys down there." This idea resulted in another twenty minutes of Kitty tossing on and off outfits as Rogue simply pulled on an over-sized hoodie and eventually the threesome left the bedroom and headed downstairs.

"I can't wait for you to meet everyone!" Kitty simply beamed, still thrilled to be playing tour guide.

Kara for her part just nodded again. She wasn't sure how many more introductions she could take. But as she heard the mansion starting to wake up and listened to Rogue and Kitty resume bickering she felt that smile creep back on her face.

Maybe she really was going to get to stay here.


	3. New Faces

**_Thanks as always Cheshire for the great review. Just starting to explore this new AU and how everyone fits in it and Kara's reactions are kind of my own. You may be surprised who else she gets to meet ; )_**

**_Also, you know you've made it when Logan gives you a nickname right?  
_**

* * *

"Where are you from?"

"Not here."

"Are you staying?"

"I - I think so?"

"Do you have any powers? I can make sparks look!"

"I can -"

"Aren't your parents looking for you?"

Kara wasn't sure how it had happened but she'd never made it back to the kitchen. Kitty had seen a group of kids in the living room and once she'd dragged Kara over and told them she was "new" suddenly the shy pantheress found herself in the middle of the group with questions being tossed out from every direction.

She'd done her best to answer some of the easier questions but at the mention of parents Kara caught her breath as her tail went completely still.

"Don't worry about that. We all have parent issues." Rogue cut in, ending the torrent of questions for at least a moment.

"Our parents tried selling us to the Bratva." A skinny blond girl - Kara was pretty sure her name was Illyana - explained matter of factly as she pointed over her shoulder at what must have been her older and much larger brother who was sitting with a few other older students.

"I'm Kurt. My mom is a wanted mutant bad guy ... unless you count the circus as parents and I'd rather not." A fuzzy blue boy with a pronged tail and yellow eyes raised his hand. He had a funny accent ... Kara wasn't sure from where yet but he was clearly the most excited to meet her judging by the way he had kept mentioning that she was also ... 'fuzzy.'

"Yea I'm Bolin and this is my brother Mako. Our parents put us on a plane and gave my brother a piece of paper with this place's address on it. We haven't heard from them in ... in ..." Bolin, who Kara noted Chinese with a mass of dark curls, was shorter than the other kids and overweight but smiled a lot, his voice starting to fade as he thought.

"A year Bolin. It's been just over a year." Mako said flatly, he looked only a little older than his brother but he was noticeably more reserved, thinner, and a little taller. Kara noticed he liked making little flames bounce between his fingers.

"I don't have parent issues. My dad was just here last week." Kitty mumbled, seemingly reserved for the first time. She knew this was a sensitive topic and it was rare at Xavier's for kid's parents to visit.

"I don't have parent issues either! I'm going with my dad to Switzerland this winter break to ski." An otherwise quite blond boy tossed out. He looked fairly regular if you didn't count the massive white feathered wings sprouting out of his back.

"Yea sure Warren. Same as the trip to Japan you were supposed to take in the summer. You haven't seen your dad in longer than Mako and Bolin." Illyana shot back. Warren muttered some response as he turned red and without looking at anyone shot up and left the group.

"That's not a bad idea ... anyone still want breakfast?" Illyana asked out loud and eventually the entire group, Kara included, went back to the kitchen.

"Don' worry. They all calm down in a couple days. You're just new." Rogue whispered to Kara as she slipped back to join the clearly wary pantheress who was eyeing the windows to the fall covered grounds.

The group quickly grabbed filled their plates and at Kitty and Rogue's suggestion ate outside, a huge relief to Kara who suspected that was the point.

While the questioning continued Kara could tell Rogue and Kitty were now doing their best to cover for her. Kara meanwhile looked around the group and couldn't help but compare everyone to where she'd come from.

This place was much better.

No one had tried to kill her ... yet.

* * *

The rest of the day was spent wandering the grounds and assuring various members of the group that despite it being a cloudy and windy fall day she really didn't need a coat.

Kara did her best to just stay in the background but everyone seemed pretty determined to keep asking her questions which she seemed equally determined to not answer. Bolin in particular seemed committed to asking random questions simply to get the rather quite feral to crack a smile.

It finally took someone new to save Kara from being the center of attention.

"Hello everyone." Kara looked up to see who Rogue had pointed out earlier as 'Storm', a rather tall regal looking woman with white hair Kara guessed to be older than the students but younger than Logan and the Doctor ... Kitty called her a 'cool teacher.'

Kara noticed that while other adults and older students had already stopped by to check in on them, the group seemed to hold themselves a bit more at attention for this one.

"You must be Kara." Ororo smiled warmly at the dark feral who nodded in return, "do you mind if I steal you from your friends for a moment? I have some things for us to do and I think I may have found you a place to stay."

Kara was clearly surprised by the news. She'd assumed she would be staying with Rogue and Kitty ... there had been a warm spot of sun in the corner she'd already marked for a place to sleep or the couch in the 'living room' seemed soft enough.

"I - I get a room?" Kara's tone was enough to get Ororo to smile even wider as she nodded and held her arm out in a clear sign for Kara to follow.

But before getting to a room, it had turned out that Ororo had wanted Kara to take tests. Lots of tests.

They'd gone to the library where Kara was actually stunned by the amount of books, something Storm noticed and informed her that when she wasn't in class she could come in and take any book she wanted.

"Class?" Kara asked slowly turning away from the rows of books around her and back to the never ending pile of questions.

"Of course. This is a school after all. Now we don't have quite enough students to have grades so we sort everyone into groups by subject and level. I'm not sure what you learned in school before you came here. But -"

"No school." Kara rumbled distractedly as she continued to slowly scribble in answers. Ororo stopped her slow pacing to look over at the focused young feral and sighed internally as she realized how naive she must have just sounded. Of course a mutant like Kara wouldn't have been able to go to school. She likely rarely got to leave her home before she was taken by ... well whoever Logan had rescued her from.

Logan had actually suggested they hold off on all the testing but Xavier and Ororo had agreed that getting Kara settled and onto a normal schedule would be the best course.

"Well you'll be in school now," Ororo said warmly which only got a shrug from the feral. "And we have plenty of other things to do as well. There are sport teams, art, archery ... does any of that sound interesting? I could sign you up for that too." Ororo tried helpfully.

"Don't know." Kara muttered again ... she didn't even understand all these questions and growled to herself.

"Well you must enjoy to doing something. What is it that like you to do ... what are you good at?" Ororo couldn't help it, she wanted Kara to have something nice to think about. All Ororo could think about was how less than a day earlier she'd been wiping this poor girl's blood out of her fur. There had to be -

"I hunt." Kara tossed out. Ororo raised an eyebrow as Kara rubbed her shoulder, seeming to be focused on her test as her brow furrowed. Ororo took a moment to process that answer and shook her head a little at her own bias ... she might be a child but she was still a feline feral. Of course she hunted.

"Hmm ... well we don't really have a group for that. Is that - is hunting something you did before?" Ororo asked gently but Kara had suddenly stopped writing.

"Can't - don't talk about it." Kara answer came out as a low rumble. Why ... why did all these people keep asking her about family ... about before? It was mostly shadows anyway. The adults the kids ... it - it wasn't supposed to matter. Logan had said so.

Ororo had been around enough children and particularly teenagers when the best thing to do was simply give them space and after a quick apology she let the pantheress finish her assessments in quite.

After a couple of hours and an exhausted growl Kara finally tossed away her pencil.

"Excellent," Ororo quickly gathered up all the papers, "I'll grade these along with Dr. McCoy and I'll let you know what your class schedule will be. And now ... how about that room?" Ororo didn't hide her smile as Kara might have seemed a bit reserved but her tail went into overdrive.

Kara followed Storm across the Mansion and up to the same wing where Kitty and Rogue had their room though down a different hallway. Ororo didn't stop until she came to the end of the hall and with a gentle knock, not getting a response, letting Kara slowly step inside.

Kara realized quickly this was not like the room she'd seen before. Or any room for that matter.

Kitty and Rogue's room was an explosion of bright colors, open drawers, clothes thrown every which way, and the walls a mash of posters and mirrors. This one was ... calm.

Kara took a few more steps into the room and appreciated how - how un-overwhelming everything was. Even the walls, a light shade of purple, and black curtains which blocked out almost all of the light coming from outside made the room feel cooler than the hallway.

Turning Kara noticed LOTS of black, purple, and grey jackets, shirts, jeans, sweatshirts and skirts, all hung neatly on a simple metallic rack. A couple of boots and sneakers stacked neatly below that. She was pretty sure Kitty didn't even own anything black.

A huge drawing of a mandala hung over the desk while small strange plants lined the wood shelves nailed into the wall. Curiously, the pantheress went over and sniffed them. Her ears perked up. They were real. She liked that. And books ... stacks of books surrounded the bed.

Kara looked down at the two books Ororo had handed her as they had left the library.

There was a scent in the air she couldn't quite place which she assumed was coming from the candle lit on the desk. It was nice.

"Ah Raven," Kara spun back to the door having momentarily forgotten Ororo was even there, "I wanted to introduce you to your newest roommate. This is Kara, she just joined us last night."

Kara tilted her head a little as Raven stepped around the corner and gave Kara a look that closely mirrored her own, the both of them just taking each other in. She was a little older than Kara. Stoic dark blue eyes, dark black hair that faded into purple, black crop top matched with grey torn jeans, combat boots and a well worn leather jacket.

"Huh. Guess it could have been worse."

Kara cocked her head confused while Ororo frowned.

"Raven…" and even the pantheress picked up the warning in the woman's regal tone, the bit of wind suddenly surrounding them catching her attention.

"I trust that I can leave her in your care?" and Kara noted how the red jewel on Raven's necklace flashed momentarily before the older girl sighed.

"I'll do my best." she deadpanned earning a nod from Ororo.

"Well I'll leave you two to get to know each other then. Kara, the bed is already made and there are some basics in the bathroom. I hope you enjoy your stay here." and the pantheress just watched as the storm goddess made her way out. She really hadn't seen anyone as graceful as Ororo before. Despite the tests ... she kind of liked her too.

There was a bit of awkward silence after that. Both girls being equally ungifted in the art of small talk. There was another sigh.

"So I bet you're pretty disappointed to be rooming with me huh? I mean, I must seem like such a downgrade from princess Kitty. " Raven said sardonically, a tone Kara was trying to understand. It was like she was insulting Kitty by insulting herself. Weird. Not really getting it, Kara just shrugged.

"I like it here." Kara shrugged as she carefully placed her two books on the windowsill by the other - her bed. Kara's tail gave an amused flick at the thought.

"I'm not popular. No one will talk to you if they think you're like me." Raven's tone was almost accusing.

"Is 'popular' good?" Kara wondered as she considered moving the books to the floor but instead nudging them into a better spot closer to the window.

"If you like being vapid and shallow." Raven answered back with a vigor that at least got Kara's attention.

"What can you do?" Kara had picked up that this was a popular question here.

"Telekinesis, flight, some telepathy and psy-blasts are the useful ones ... the empath part is a drag." Raven had clearly answered this before. A few more minutes of silence passed as Kara explored. Raven wasn't used to someone else being the quite one.

"You know they call me a witch right?" Raven tossed out as she sat cross legged on her own bed, eyeing her newest roommate questioningly.

"You're not a witch." Kara took a seat directly across from Raven, mirroring her style, which raised an eyebrow.

"You sure about that?" Raven scoffed back, "You'll be my third roommate this month alone."

"You kicked them out?" Kara answered back, the first bit of hesitation in her soft rumble. She didn't know Raven could do that.

Raven for her part just laughed hollowly.

"They ran out. Last one didn't last two nights." Raven warned, the shadow behind her seemingly growing in size. Kara narrowed her eyes.

"Why?"

"Cause they were scared." Raven's tone shifted slightly as a leaf that had blown into the room suddenly froze as a dark purple haze covered it and began to slowly turn in the middle of the room. Despite the orange sky outside, the light slowly darkened as a similar purple glow enveloped Raven.

Kara gave the leaf a look of interest, earning a smirk from Raven, who just as quickly lost it as both eyebrows now shot straight up as the leaf found itself pinned to the wood paneled wall behind her head, a pencil Kara had taken with her from the library placed perfectly in its center.

"Not scared," Kara verbally shrugged as Raven slowly turned back from the pinned leaf, "what are those?"

Kara's pointed over Raven's bed at the large grid of pictures. Raven glanced back quickly, not quite ready to take her eyes off her newest roommate, and gave Kara a confused look.

"They're vinyls." Raven's tone making it clear she thought Kara was messing with her.

"What's a vinyl?" Kara leaned forward, head cocked slightly to the side.

"What's a - it - they're music. You know albums." Raven's tone shifted slightly to one of mild disbelief ... almost amusement.

The pantheress for her part just nodded as she looked at the 'vynls' with interest. She didn't know what that meant but she really liked the art on them ... they had funny names too: The Velvet Underground, Arctic monkeys, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica, The Smiths, Blondie.

"What's a green day?"

"Whats a gree-" Raven let out a huff and getting off the bed she carefully began rifling through her leather bag before gesturing - pausing - and then gesturing for the panthress to get over there.

Shrugging, Kara carefully made her way over and crouched next to Raven as she pulled out her phone and an earpiece device.

"I can't believe you just asked me that … ok -" and Kara lowered her ears a little at Raven's pause, noting how the older girl was staring at her upturned ears and then the ear piece.

The panthress felt her previously curled tail unfurl a little, it was dumb of her to assume Raven would be willing to share her green day. Raven however just rolled her eyes and tossed the earbuds back in her bag.

"OK never mind, give me a second." and Kara watched in surprise as Raven levitated a pair of headphones from her desk.

"These have better audio quality anyway." and Kara growled a little as the headphones were fit snugly over her head. She stiffened a little when she saw Raven press play and closed her eyes in anticipation.

Raven raised her eyebrow when she saw Kara's eyes pop open as her pupils dilate a little, her tail slowly beginning to sway across the floor.

"You… You doing alright there kid?" but Kara didn't seem to hear her and had started tapping her claws gently against the wood, that tail thumping in rhythm. Raven couldn't help but laugh a little, internally at least. The little panthress's face had despite all of this, remained as stoic and focused as ever.

At first Kara found the music ... well loud. Way too loud and messy too. But letting herself be carried by the sounds, focusing on the rhythms, how they overlapped, the beats and the breaks, listening to this sad, strange and even exciting sound again and again even as it drew out and repeated itself . Kara felt like she never heard anything like it.

She realized that barely even after a day at Xavier's there were a lot of things, people ... even words that she didn't understand. This was the opposite. She couldn't understand a word from this "Green Day," but she could understand what they were trying to say. She liked it.

The panthress was so engrossed with it, she didn't even notice Raven quickly make a mix on her ipod and quietly lean against her bed, book in hand, not too close of course. Both of them just engrossed in their activities in companionable silence.

It was dark out, when Raven finally levitated the headphones off Kara, the latter giving what Raven assumed was an annoyed huff.

"Don't want to spoil you. Gotta preserve the specialness." Raven explained sagely, getting a begrudging nod from Kara.

"I like music." Kara stated as if making the decision for the first time. Raven just shook her head, now definitely amused. She wasn't sure if this roommate was going to stick around ... but she wasn't completely terrible in the meantime.

* * *

Logan was working on his bike because he needed to do something that would actually show progress.

He'd reached out to the few members of SHIELD and Avengers he thought he could trust and had come back with nothing. Same thing with the few other teams he helped out. Had even asked Elektra if the Hand had been making noise lately.

Nothing. No one seemed to have any intel on a valuable feral never mind a pantheress.

The same pantheress who had been taking her in the kitchen ... was now down the hall ... and almost silently slipping into the garage. Kid was good. Most he would have caught coming down the stairs.

"You don't sleep Salem?" Logan gruffed as he tightened the side panel.

"Night is better. Quieter." Kara rumbled right back, perched on top of Logan's shop stool taking in her surroundings as it rolled behind him.

"Not gonna argue that. You settlin' in OK?" Logan asked half-listening as he reached for his beer. He'd mentioned Raven as a good fit ... that kid needed someone that didn't scare easy.

"It's ..." Kara seemed to be struggling to find the right word, "different."

"Different can be good. Especially from where I pulled you from." Logan responded, earning a rumble of agreement from Kara. Logan let the two enjoy the night's silence for a bit longer before he spoke again.

"You want me to guess or you just wanna ask it already?" Even if she didn't look nervous Logan could scent that Kara was anxious about something. Though that tail was a dead giveaway as it twitched right at the end. That and the way she kept rubbing her shoulder.

"Really safe?" Kara's soft rumble was enough for Logan to put down his tools and spin to face the pantheress directly.

"If I tell you something is safe you believe it. I wouldn't let anythin' happen to this place. Or these kids," Logan leaned down a bit so he met Kara's eyes, "that includes you Salem," he saw the younger feral's eyes shoot out at the night, "No one knows that you're here. If you're worried bout someone comin' after ya ... don't."

Kara let what Logan was saying sink in as she finally asked what he knew she'd been building to.

"I really get to stay?" Kara rumbled.

"Long as you want." Logan smirked but as he was about to push back he paused, the wind shifting causing him to sniff the air as Kara's ears swiveled, her brow furrowed as she looked at Logan questioningly.

"Get lost Salem." Logan didn't growl but his tone was enough for the younger feral to nod and leap from the bench clear to the door inside.

Logan kept his eye on the door a few moments after Kara slipped through it before taking a steadying breath and turning back to his bike, finishing his beer and popping open a second in almost the same movement.

He was gonna need it as a single set of footsteps crunched up the gravel drive to the open garage.

"What ya doin' here Fury?" Logan growled suspiciously without looking up from his bike as the enigmatic Director of SHIELD stepped into the light.

"Good to see you too Logan. Let's call it a debrief from your last Avengers mission." Fury replied casually though not believing Logan would buy any of it. Still ... he needed to play the game.

"You ain't never come around here for a debrief before." Logan rumbled, turning his attention back to his engine and taking a pull from his beer.

"I read the team field report and I thought I'd drop by personally. Read like there was maybe something missing." Fury asked, his gaze taking in everything, evasive as ever.

"Not much to read cause there wasn't much to report. That 'lead' you sent us out on was a bust. Place could have been shut down by SHIELD all on it's own. No need to waste our time." Logan grumbled as he reached for a wrench.

"If it was all 'bullshit' than why did you ghost the team? Rogers mentions you came straight back here after the mission." Fury mused.

"Like I said. Was a waste of time. I did my job and didn' feel like having this exact conversation."

"That job include putting a bullet through Widow's shoulder and leaving her in that hole?" Wolverine tossed his tools aside, mildly amused at the length Nat had gone to cover herself. Bout time they got to it.

"Don't know what you're sniffin around for Fury but -"

"I want the target." It wasn't just what Fury said but the tone as if it was already a foregone conclusion that got the true growl to rise out of Logan as he finally stood across from the Director.

"Get out Fury." Logan snarled. Fury didn't budge.

"Logan one way or another it's coming with me or ending up at SHIELD. It's your call how that happens. Last thing I want is word of this school getting out and I end up seeing this place raided from a briefing room at the White House." Logan did not miss the threat Fury was leveraging but he didn't back down. He just took a step closer to Fury.

"Her name is Kara and she's staying right where she is. Send whoever you want to come get her ... just don't expect me to send em back to ya." Fury took his time measuring Logan's reaction when his eyebrows slowly went up.

"You really have no idea what you have here ... do you?" Fury sounded suspicious but more surprised and with that turned on his heel to go.

"Who is she to you Fury?" Logan barked as Fury headed down the driveway.

"It's not who she is to me that matters Logan. And if you don't know? I'd find out for the sake of your precious 'school.'"


	4. Settling In

**_Thanks to everyone that followed and fav'd. Cheshire, not to worry Kara already has plenty of adults looking out for her and glad you liked my surprise additions. In this AU you never know who might show up ... Raven (Teen Titans) and Mako & Bolin (Korra) are just the start ; ) Welcome back Canuckle! I can't say this is x-men evo but no denying I get a lot of influence from the show ... it is one of my favorites. As for Fury ... well it would have to be something/one pretty special for him to insert himself and Kara is certainly that special and that's all I'll say for now.  
_**

* * *

"You really don't have to sit here." Raven muttered over her coffee, the pair sitting in one of the tables tucked into a corner of the massive kitchen near the windows. Kara had been heading outside with a plate filled with basically every breakfast meat the mansion offered but had come up short when Raven had made a sharp left turn to the corner. Considering her options, the pantheress followed and took a seat opposite Raven, facing the rest of the room.

"You're gonna get marked if you stay." Raven grumbled again.

"Don't mark. Heal too fast." Kara responded matter of fact as she speared a sausage, tail swishing in anticipation.

"Thats' not," Raven rubbed her forehead as she took a breath ... this girl really didn't get school dynamics, "they'll think you're with me." Kara looked away from her sausage and around her seat clearly confused.

"I am sitting with you." Kara really didn't get what Raven talked about half the time. Besides who could complain with this much food!

"I mean they'll mark you as a freak. Even at Xavier's. You want friends don't you?" Raven shot back harshly but Kara sensed something else in the girl's voice… and although she appeared calmly to sip her coffee… Kara knew Raven was… bothered… about something… With a chuff, the panthress abandoned her sausage for a moment.

"We share a room. You shared music. And books. We're friends." Kara tossed out, Raven's typically stoic guard dropping for a moment as she just stared at Kara. That however was quickly covered as the slate-blue haired teen spotted incoming.

"Hey Kara!" Kitty had clearly been looking for her newest housemate and had come running over once she'd located the feline.

"I couldn't find you last night after we all came inside. Where did you end up rooming with? We couldn't figure it out." Kitty asked brightly, the bouncy brunette a ray of sunshine even this early. Which of course was a nightmare for -

"Raven." Kara nodded across from her, Kitty taking a small step back at the hooded Raven as if just seeing her for the first time.

"Oh - that - wow OK. That - that's… that's really neat," Kitty's bright demeanor shading slightly, "good - good morning Raven."

Raven gave the smallest of waves without looking up from her coffee and toast. Kitty's energy was honestly more caffeinated than what was in her cup and she put it down with a grimace.

"We're all gonna go grab breakfast do - do you wanna come Kara?" Kitty asked doing her best to not look like she wasn't looking over at Raven who simply leaned back in her chair expectantly.

"Have breakfast. You can sit." Kara absently used her tail to point at the seat next to her but Kitty shook her head a little too quickly.

"No no ... that's OK. But ummm ... here Professor Ororo wanted me to give you this." Kitty handed over a folded piece of paper which Kara took and quickly studied.

"It's your class schedule," Kitty's explained, her smile returning, "it looks like we share a bunch of classes. So I'll see you later and show you where to go - oh you can sit next to me! OK?" Kitty beamed as she quickly returned to a table near the center of the room with Rogue, Warren, Bolin, Mako, and Magik.

Kara just shook her head, ears upturned in anticipation… Finally… FINALLY. She was starving-

"Let me see that." and Kara just huffed a little as the piece of paper levitated out of her hands. Fine, she had tried being patient. Now she was just going to just eat with her hands.

Raven did her best not to roll her eyes as her roommate dug into her meal with full gusto. The older girl frowned, as a hand went up to cup her mouth. Wait… This… This didn't make sense.

"Hey Kara-" and the panthress looked up with her cheeks full, a piece of bacon still hanging out.

"Mmph?"

"Are you like… really good at math or something?" Raven questioned.

"Math?" Kara didn't find this nearly as interesting as her food.

"Yeah like… Geometry, physics…"

Kara just cocked her head while Raven rubbed her temples.

"You have any favorite books? Y'know apart from the ones Ororo gave you." and Kara shrugged.

"Haven't read them, never had my own books before."

"Huh." and Raven took one more look at the piece of paper, her eyes scrunched up in a way that made Kara a bit uneasy.

"Is there something wrong with my classes?" from what Kara understood classes were just like training. But for your brain. Which was kind of interesting but there was just a tsk from Raven slid the paper back .

"Yeah you should, Ororo is a real stickler for homework. Might want to get started on those book."

In fact, the discussion of Kara's class schedule had gone on earlier that morning after Hank and Ororo had gone in circles trying to figure out what the young feral's test had shown.

"She's clearly had some form of schooling. She tested years above her age for math and even chemistry. Her problem solving too seems very advanced." Hank mused as he reviewed the answers, most without any kind of calculations aside from a few shorthand scribbles.

"Are you sure Hank? Because - well I'm not certain she's ever had any form of regular education. A cell ... the president ... history ... she - she didn't know that the earth rotated around the sun! Her reading level is - well it definitely needs work." Ororo put the results down, concern clear in her tone.

They'd had children come in before who had been neglected. Abandoned. Abused. But Kara had clearly had some type of investment placed on her development but what was lacking was frankly shocking to the storm goddess.

"A puzzle to be sure." Hank muttered mostly to himself as he reached over for the rest of the feline's results. He knew they painted a picture ... he just wasn't sure of what yet.

"For now let's place her best we can. Bobby's math classes should be perfect. I'm certain your morning english will be fine ... best to place her among friends. She can lean on them there ..." and the rest of the classes Hank put together in a few more minutes but Ororo felt there was more to learn ... and staring at one of the pages Ororo noticed a dogeared corner bent over had been drawn on.

Letting Hank continue speaking, Ororo turned the page over and smiled. It was the library from what must have been Kara's point of view. The details were a bit rough but the depth and shading was very well done. Ororo couldn't help but chuckle a little ... so the girl was an artist. She knew it.

"What that Storm?" Hank picked his head up as he was finishing up.

"Nothing, just be sure to place her in the art block after classes." Ororo's tone brighter at finding something fun for the new feral to do.

"Pretty sure I didn' order cajun. So get out." Logan growled as he leaned over the control console for the Danger Room.

"Pretty sure we got a training block right now ol man." Remy sauntered up behind Logan, his usual smirk firmly in place.

"Forget it Remy, we all know Logan wants to see us dead, I bet that's why he keeps forgetting." Jason snarked, a smirk to match his best friend's as he came to stand on Logan's other side who growled.

"Oh sorry, PROFESSOR LOGAN SIR."

"You both need more trainin' than you can fit in one hour." Logan muttered as he changed the view below.

"Now you can' be speakin' bout us," Gambit replied easily, "my friend here been trainin' for ... how long again?"

"Not long enough." Logan could never seem to get away from these two.

Ever since he'd been on the team to save Remy's ass out of that Assassins Guild turf war in those damn swamps the kid had been fond of following him around. Hustlin' him at pool. Doin his best to bug every female at Xavier's from student to teacher.

Jason had shown up a few months later - alone - claiming to be a few hundred years old even though he looked barely 14. Whatever he'd told Chuck had been convincing enough though most at Xavier's thought he was full of shit ... and attitude.

"A dozen lifetimes. The blessing of linear regeneration." Jason snarked.

"Funny, you'd think living a dozen lifetimes you wouldn't have such shit for brains." Logan grumbled but Jason smirked.

"Nah, it's more that I can enjoy having shit for brains. Trust me, this luxury I'm not giving up."

Logan just growled as the two boys continued to snark off.

"I don't hide any booze in here so you two can just wait for me to be done ... outside." Logan wanted to finish with this though so far it had been a waste of time.

"Oh wait, you mean this booze?" Jason asked pulling a bottle of whiskey from his jacket, pretending to examine it.

"Or this one?" Remy grinned back presenting two more from his own trench coat.

"God damn it you two! JASON... I don' care how old you think you are. YOU can't steal from my stash." Logan swiped the bottle midair, earning a faux pout from Jason who had tried tossing the bottle to Remy who was more focused on what Wolverine had been working on.

"You plannin' on robbin' a bank granmoun?" Logan and Jason stopped arguing about the bottles as they both looked at Remy, Logan with confusion and Jason with clear interest. They loved trying to poke their noses in Logan's business. It was almost as much fun as hassling Scott.

"What you talkin' bout swamp rat?" Logan came to stand next to Remy, hand on his hip, eyes focused.

"This," Remy gestured at the floorplan laid out from a birdseye view in the Danger Room, "whatever you tryin' to steal. Security looks good but ... ol' Remy here can show you how to get it done."

"Your robbin' skills are off kid. This was a jail. Not a bank." Logan muttered but Jason had seen enough and shook his head.

"Nah, that's definitely a bank. I was ... well, let's say a part-time criminal in 18th century France and even I can tell. Like look, see the one way in and out ... that single corridor... Even the security defense is clearly to keep someone out not in." Jason explained. "Any idiot can figure that out."

Logan leaned over the console as the two teens began to argue the best way to rob the place but he didn't hear them.

He'd assumed Kara had been down in that hole to keep her from escaping. It hadn't occurred to him that she'd been kept down there to keep someone else from findin' her.

"If you two morons want to shut the hell up for once," Logan grumbled as he easily stole back the other bottle of booze as he turned, "Then the next two hours it's all yours."

"Two hours? We only got the Danger Room for one!?" but by then Logan had already walked out having set the two teens for a training program he reserved for detention. After all ... the punks had raided him.

* * *

Kara's first day of classes were not what she had expected. At least not like any training she'd had before.

It turned out she was just supposed to sit there. The first hour of class that had been fine. It was only when she found out there were five more hours that she suspected this was actually some kind of torture resistance training.

"You're supposed to sit there and listen." Kitty tried explaining as she followed to their next class. "Not just sit there and stare out the window."

Kara tried that and it did make things a little better. Dr. McCoy taught the science classes and turned out she was good at those. Well most of those.

"I don't see why I need to know what planets are." Kara grumbled as they left class.

"Why you should - because everyone knows that stuff! I grew up in the sticks and even I know that. It's important." Rogue explained while Bolin and Kurt nodded in agreement.

Kara didn't see how any of this stuff was useful. Knowing what combined to make an acid strong enough to eat through concrete was useful. She didn't see how knowing that the sun was the center of the 'universe' would help determine which rifle wouldn't jam and fire best long-distance in a storm. Eventually they got a break which resulted in most of the group quickly eating lunch and then enjoying the fall sun. Kara watched as the group headed towards the woods and split into teams to play a game ... Kitty and Mako were named 'captain' and Kitty quickly called 'dibs' on her. Whatever that meant.

Illyana quickly explained the rules and for once Kara understood what was going on. It was a simple extraction exercise.

"Try capture the flag mutant style. We each get a turn protecting and attacking. No one's gettin' past us!" Bolin emphasized his point by thrusting his fist in the air as a large chunk of earth followed suit. Kara's tail gave an amused flick.

Like everything else at Xavier's, the exercise - "game!" Kurt reminded her as he ran off with the other team- wasn't what she had expected. It appeared the primary purpose was ... well to have fun. It seemed everyone wanted to win but not hurt each other. Weird but OK.

The panthress rolled her shoulders, cracked her neck, and got to work.

Kara actually managed to steal the flag first, securing a point for her team. Most of the other students didn't seem to think looking up was very important so Kara had simply stuck to the trees and dropped down behind Illyana for the flag.

The next round on defense she'd attempted the same strategy though this time Kurt had appeared with a could of brimstone and a grin and suddenly Kara found herself outside the forest altogether. With a growl she'd dived back in but the other team had already scored.

Kara snarled, now more determined then ever to grab that stupid flag, this time speeding on all fours, smoothly rolling into a new direction whenever a hint of brimstone hit her, effectively outmaneuvering everyone of the field but came up short when she heard Kitty scream.

Mako had seen Kitty phasing through the trees and in an attempt to stop her threw a wall of fire in her path. Kitty had been so focused on winning and waving it in Rogue's face that she never saw the inferno before suddenly it was right in front of her. Backpedaling, Mako tossed out another fire blast, effectively trapping Kitty.

"Sorry Kit-Kat but no way you're getting - WOAH!"

"Kara stop!"

Mako wasn't sure what hit him but he certainly felt like he got hit face first by a truck. He felt himself tumble a few feet and if that wasn't bad enough, another hit to his chest, followed by a crash to his back and suddenly, instead of crashing to the ground, he found himself standing.

Well almost standing ... because slowly opening his eyes and tilting his down slightly Mako realized that he had crashed into a tree and it was Kara's clawed foot pinning him to said tree. Instinctively he tried to bend some fire to scare Kara away, but a low growl made it clear she wasn't having any of it.

Narrowing his eyes, Mako worked to keep calm. For once his classes with Logan and Scott seeming to stick.

"Oh my god ...KARA what are you doing?!" Ilyana yelled but the panthress didn't move, in fact, she shoved her foot harder into Mako's chest, not to mention inching up towards his neck.

"Hurt Kitty." was all she snarled out, her eyes still intensely focused on the older boy. Kara didn't think Logan would let her kill anyone and stay but she didn't remember himtelling her she couldn't maim anyone.

"HEY! Let my brother go!" and the normally friendly Bolin suddenly looked very threatening as all the rocks - not to mention a huge chunk of the ground - around him started levitating. But Kara didn't flinch as he hurled it in her direction, his assault only stopping mid-flight when Mako gave a small signal for Bolin to stand down.

"Whoa its OK bro, I got this," and with an uneasy smile, he turned back to the growling panthress.

"Hey Kara? I'm sorry I attacked Kitty - I was just messing around honest! We were all just playing the game. So - uh ... Could you maybe get off me now? Gettin' lil hard to breath."

By now, the whole group had gathered around the two of them with Kitty desperately trying to diffuse the tension.

"Kara he was being stupid, like really stupid, but he wasn't going to hurt me I swear! See I'm totally fine!"

"Lying." and Kara's eyes narrowed. "Can hear heartbeat. You're lying. You were scared." and Kitty looked at her friends for help while Rogue subtly went to remove her glove only to stop when Jean suddenly came running into the clearing.

Jean had been just pulling into Xavier's when she'd felt that amount of emotions coming out of the forest. A quick scan of the area had her running to the scene and from the looks of it, just in the nick of time.

"What is going on here?! Kara let Mako go immediately." Jean's tone filled with as much authority as the red headed teen could muster.

"No." Kara hadn't even bothered turning at Jean's arrival but Jean had seen enough.

"I said ... now." And with a burst the group could actually see Kara's claws drew lines in the dirt as she was psychically pulled away from Mako who let out a huge breath of air as he fell to a knee.

"Mako are you alright?" Jean moved to rush over but Mako held up a hand.

"I'm fine Jean. We… We were just messing around." Mako managed out before grinning at her as if nothing happened, a facade quickly ruined by Bolin who came racing over to check on his brother.

"OH MY GOD MAKO, I thought she was going to KILL you for a second." the younger boy wailed as he wrapped his arms around his big brother whose confident grin turned into a sheepish apologetic smile. Jean narrowed her eyes, content Mako would live… she turned her attention to the still growling panther who kept her eyes on the recovering firebender.

"Kara…" and Jean didn't get the girl's attention until she stepped in front of her.

"What happened? Why - you can't attack another student!" but Kara only crossed her arms, those furious golden eyes clearly conveying exactly what she thought to Jean. The senior student sighed before trying again, gentler this time.

"Look I know you're new here, but there are rules. Rules that you broke. So can you tell me what happened?"

Jean wasn't sure what happened but she sensed a sharp change in Kara, her intense focus and anger at Mako suddenly shifting to a defensive anxiety towards - towards her.

Kara took a small step back as she seemingly braced herself to answer, a hand going to her shoulder, but was seemingly cutoff as the whole group quickly started yelling about what had happened, that is until Mako stepped in.

"It was my fault. I - I went too far. Kara was just protecting Kitty." That got everyone to shut up, Kara raising an eyebrow as her tail fell around her.

"Kitty is that true?" Jean's tone made it clear she assumed Mako was for some reason covering for the dark feral but Kitty was quick to respond.

"It is! Well mostly ..." Kitty shot Mako a quick look, "I don't think Mako was trying to hurt anyone. But Kara was just trying to protect me. Honest!"

There was a pause before Jean took a breath as she clearly weighed things out.

"Well alright if that's the story you all want to stick to," Giving the entire group a look, clearly inviting anyone to come out and say otherwise, Jean let out a resigned sigh as her hair neatly fell back into place, "everyone back inside. You all have classes right?"

Jean gave the group a final look before heading back to the mansion. Kara watched her go until she was out of sight, her tail giving a relieved flick as she rolled her shoulders. That had been close.

Kara let out a breath and turned to finish the game but saw that everyone had already started wandering back inside.

"We're not finishing the ex- the game?" Kara asked Ilyana, who didn't quite stop as she answered.

"N - no Kara. I think we're done with games today."

Kara looked around and without anything else to do shrugged and walked deeper into the forest. She wasn't ready to head back in quite yet.


	5. Whispers

**_A/N: Thanks as always Cheshire for the review. And yes! Jason is too much fun to not include in this new AU. If anyone has ideas on who else should make an appearance just let me know in your review. Also thanks to the new favs/followers. Now on to the next!  
_**

* * *

Logan tossed the piece of computer equipment onto the workbench in the garage with a grunt. The rifle he smoothly unloaded, disassembeled, and slipped the parts back throughout his tools. Last thing he needed was some kid acting stupid.

With that taken care of, Logan turned back to the hard drive. He'd noticed the drone the other day skimming the tree line and had been waiting for it this afternoon. He'd been able to hit it without damaging what he needed which only somewhat tampered the frustation at having to shoot it down in the first place.

It was clearly an AIM piece of tech. The name itself plastered on the side. Not the first time a group like that had taken an interest in Xaviers and not the first drone Logan had taken out of the sky.

He'd had Forge put something together he could use easily enough and taking the drive plugged it into the tablet that would automatically cut through most firewalls. He didn't have to wait long for the upload to be over.

As Logan scrolled through the pictures he knew the drone would have taken a low growl filled the garage.

Kara.

Every picture was of Kara ... some even capturing her inside the mansion.

Logan snapped the drive in half and popped a claw through it a few times for good measure.

He went upstairs and tossed a few things in a duffel. Left a note letting Chuck know he was headed out for a couple days. Then back to the garage and his bike hit the highway in under 30 minutes.

Logan was done grasping at shadows. He wanted answers.

* * *

Kara had hoped that she could be alone for a while.

After the exerci- 'game' Kara heard Kurt's voice reminded her again - Everyone seemed ... off. They were still their usual loud, strange, nice selves but - but it felt like it was coming from far away. Raven had mentioned noticing something was different but Kara had brushed it off. But then Kara had noticed one morning that no one looked her in the eyes anymore. _That_ she noticed. It made her feel ... well she just didn't like it.

The panthress huffed. She knew this would happen eventually. It always did. Other mutants were afraid of her ... and that had been fine before. She had just thought it wouldn't happen here as well.

But it was the few whispers that she picked up that were new. Raven called it 'gossip.' She'd noticed it on a morning she'd woken up tired and had simply padded downstairs on all fours to grab breakfast. Walking upright or on all fours had never made much difference to her ... but then she'd heard some other students whispering ... about her ... about her attacking Mako ... dangerous ... beast ... feral ...

"There wasn't any coffee?" Raven's voice the same calm distant tone as her incantations as she did her morning meditations.

"Wasn't hungry." Kara rumbled as she'd slipped back in back on two feet.

Then she'd been in the training facility - or 'gym' as the students called it - doing her best to just focus on her strikes. She liked the wing chun. It was off in a corner and no one else seemed to really use it. The sounds she made striking the wooden posts created a rhythm and she found it calming.

Kara wasn't sure how long she'd been going but with a snarl she threw a final elbow and cracked a post clean in two. Panting with exhaustion, the pantheress had the first small smile on her muzzle in a while, but that stopped when she turned to leave and saw that most of the gym was looking in her direction. Course once she'd turned they all quickly looked away, the whispers like a low thunder in the feline's ears.

Kara had stood her ground, slowly taking in the entire room of older students, before letting out a low growl and stalking out of the gym.

It had felt funny anyway, suddenly finding herself alone and yet somehow she was the still the center of attention even when everyone couldn't look her in the eye. So Kara had decided to take off, exploring the grounds when not in class, and spending most other time in the old dilapidated barn on the edge of the property. She liked the quiet and the rafters were an easy place to lay low. It was only after doing this for a few days that one afternoon her ears perked up in surprise when she realized she wasn't alone.

"Leave." Kara's soft growl brought Mako up short just before the barn's entrance but that was quickly replaced by his usual confident smirk though he stepped in a bit slower than he'd just been walking.

"Kara? I've been looking everywhere for you." Mako kept his tone casual as he held up a small flame in his palm. It was still sunny outside but the barn was filled with shadows. One of which dropped suddenly in front of him getting a small yelp out of the taller mutant.

"I said leave." Mako was the last person Kara wanted to talk to considering he was the reason everyone was treating her funny. She turned to leave the barn entirely and head back to the forest.

"Hey wait -" but Kara bared her teeth in warning when the boy daringly tried to grab her shoulder, the latter quickly putting them both up in a surrendering position.

"Sorry sorry! Keep forgetting you're not a fan." but Kara kept growling, not stopping until she spotted what he was holding. It was so random it actually cut her growls.

"Ugly." Mako blinked.

"I'm sorry- what did you say-" and Kara gestured at the doll in his hand.

"Oh - This is Pabu and he's not ugly, he's cute." Mako defended in a tone Kara read as him trying to be funny as he made the little stuffed animal move for emphasis but the panthress remained unamused, her ear twitching in annoyance. The older boy sighed.

"Well i guess he is kinda ugly, That's why I'm trying to stitch him back together." Mako had been walking through the kitchen when he'd heard a few other students mention seeing 'the cat' stalking towards the barn earlier in the day. He'd forgotten the real reason he'd been slipping outside himself and had headed straight for the barn to investigate.

"Broken. Throw away." Kara scoffed, but the older boy only gripped the doll tighter as he slipped it into his back pocket.

There was a pause before Mako leaned back and sat on an old bale of hay.

"Look about the other today," and Kara noted his change of tone, the smirk no longer there.

"I'm sorry OK? I've been telling all the other kids to lay off. You don't deserve crap like that. The stupid part is that I get it. I GET why you attacked me like that. My parents- " and Kara noted how Mako pulled the doll back out without seeming to realize it as he spoke.

"My parents didn't put us on a plane like Bolin said. The Chinese government was rounding up mutants. Any mutant really. Didn't really matter if they were old or… kids like us... but no one ever heard from them again" and Kara slowly got out of her crouched position, suddenly relaxing a little trying to catch Mako's eye but the older boy couldn't seem to look anywhere but at Pabu. " My parents did everything to get me and my brother out. They were just rushing to push us in a truck with someone they'd paid off when the troops arrived at our house. Bolin was pretty young and already on the truck but - I saw what happened." Kara stepped closer as Mako formed a small flame in his palm before making it disappear.

"I just told him that story about the plane to make him feel better. It wasn't a year ago either - he just keeps saying that to make himself feel better. We've been at Xavier's for over 2 years now." and Mako flopped Pabu over.

"Pabu's the last thing ma and ba ever gave him. Some other kids were making fun of him for still sleeping with a toy… At least a while ago before you showed up and they tore it up pretty good. Been trying to fix him up the best I could but I guess I'm pretty bad at it." and Kara cocked her head.

"And the other kids?" Kara asked.

"They don't bother Bolin anymore." Mako's smirk back in place. He didn't mention him and Bolin now shared a room. Where he could keep a closer eye. Where he could -

"Protect." and Mako watched as the panthress calmly went to sit next to him.

"You, protect Bolin." she said simply, her eyes traveling from Pabu and then back to Mako who nodded. The two just sitting together in silence until Kitty came to tell them it was time to return to the mansion for dinner.

Mako shot Kara another smirk and headed inside, Kara watching him for a moment before getting up herself to head inside. But as she stepped outside the barn she paused, first her ears and then the rest of her turning towards the forest.

"You comin' Kara?" Mako called, Kitty standing next to him on tiptoes trying to figure out what Kara was staring at.

Kara kept her gaze locked on the forest for a few more seconds before turning back and heading towards the mansion.

* * *

Kara's growl cleared the path as students quickly stepped aside as the pantheress stalked her way upstairs.

"Problem?" Raven's tone as dry as ever as Kara practically kicked their door in, the older girl softly levitating all her plants and books in place. Raven glanced over the book she was reading to see her roommate almost seeming to be bracing herself before letting out yet another growl as she walked over to 'the pile.'

Or at least that's what Raven called it.

The second morning as roommates, Kara and Raven had come upstairs to grab their books for class when a stack of clothes had been waiting on Kara's neatly made bed.

Clearly confused, Kara had walked over and given the neatly folded collection an exploratory sniff, thinking the clothes were obviously someone elses.

But once Kara picked up a few pieces Raven couldn't help but chuckle at the look on the feral's face.

"Whose are these?" Kara's tone said it all.

"They're yours." and Kara took another quizzical look at the offending garment, cocking her head at the sparkly font.

"No way."

"Yes way…" Raven almost smirked as the little panthress let out a growl.

"Hey, I warned you what would happen if you didn't stop Jean when she mentioned she was going shopping for you." There was no answer, Kara had already started going through the pile.

"Hey, at least now you've got yourself your own Xavier barbie starter kit." Raven's tone full of faux-sympathy as Kara picked up one colorful piece after another.

Jean had of course done her best to cover the basics of what she thought any new girl at Xavier's would want. The fact is was already a cool fall meant that there were plenty of jeans, sweaters, leggings, dresses, and long sleeve tops. Even a coat with matching hat and gloves.

"I - I told her I just needed more of this." Kara's tone a bit distant as she held up a pastel sweater.

"Think I can see that near the bottom." Raven mentioned and quickly tossing aside most of the pile Kara did find a few pair of running shorts and tank tops ... in every color but black, way too tight, and most with designs Kara couldn't even recognize.

Kara had let out a snarl and had simply pushed the entire pile off of her bed where it had sat for almost a week. Kara had only swapped tanks once and that had been after turning the one grey tank inside out to hide the yellow lightning bolts.

Then she'd walked into Ororo's english class this morning. Professor Monroe had pulled Kara aside on her way to her seat near the back of the room and asked her to change.

Kara had looked down at her clothes clearly confused. I mean sure there were some tears ... and there was a bit of blood on it from the rabbit she'd brought down the other day ... but they still covered everything.

Ororo had insisted. Now Kara was growling as she tossed the pile everywhere for anything she thought she could stand.

Ororo however had taken Kara's lack of clean clothes as a sign of help. The feline's ears swiveled towards the door before falling flat as she bowed her head in defeat.

"Heard you needed some fashion help!" Kitty sang out as she practically danced her way into the room Raven's bowed head now quickly matching her roommates. Not that Kitty noticed of course

"I -" Kara tried stopping this before it stopped but Kitty had been quietly approached by Professor Storm to go after Kara and help her find something to wear and the girl was in heaven. She still felt her first try at getting Kara into real clothes was a personal failure.

"Don't have to say a thing! Don't worry, Professor Ororo already told me we only got like 5 minutes so you just go into the bathroom and I'll do all the work." Kitty urged as she pushed a reluctant Kara into the bathroom and quickly shut the door.

Raven just watched from a safe distance, lamanting to herself that she probably had to clean this all up as Kitty quickly sorted through the pile at a rapid rate and grabbed a couple items before tossing them quickly into the bathroom which Kara had sadly discovered had bolted windows.

Kara held up what Kitty had given her and released a low growl of defeat. Considering Storm's was one of the few classes she actually liked, being something she'd never really had the opportunity to do before and knowing she needed to get better. She had looked over at Raven rolling through her thick books, switching between two or three in an hour, as she struggled to get through a few pages.

Kara weighed the pros and cons before haphazardly putting on the outfit Kitty had handed to her.

"You coming out or what?" Kitty called, shooting Raven a nervous smile who simply gave a sarcastic thumbs up.

"This stupid." Kara growled as she finally emerged, ears folded back, tail limp and clearly uncomfortable though from the smile on Kitty's face you'd never know it.

Kitty had gone with a pair of dark blue jeans and a light purple tshirt. Moving quickly before anyone could protest and Kitty knew Kara would, she pulled a light belt around the feline's already slim waist and threw a simple gold necklace over her head. Raven was having trouble keeping herself from laughing outright.

"Now you look perfect! I wish we had some time for your hair ..." Kitty actually reached out a hand as if to fix Kara's typically wile mane but a low growl made her pull up short. Kara felt like she could barely move in these things, she was hot, and the hole she'd cut for her tail itched. Kitty of course never lost that smile.

"Fine fine you big baby ... now c'mon we gotta get to class!" And with that Kitty grabbed Kara's hand and the pair sank through the floor but not before Kara shot Raven a look she recognized too well.

Raven chuckled to herself and went back to reading, her morning free of classes she cared about. She gave the pile a look as an idea formed in her head ... which Raven quickly shook away.

She wasn't like Jean or Kitty. She didn't need to get involved in anyone else's business. Least of all _that_ kind of business.

It was an hour later when Kara finally came back to the room and to Raven's silent dismay with Kitty in tow.

"See that wasn't so bad was it?" The cheerful brunette clapped but the feline wasn't having any of it.

"Finally…" Kara growled out and to Kitty's horror and Raven's amusement, the panthress ripped herself out of the clothes. A tattered pair of jeans, belt and what remained of a shirt now rags on the ground. For once, the usually talkative Kitty was silent.

"Those… those were like really nice jeans…" but Kara just shrugged, silently making her way to the bed and lying there, back to her friends. Silent.

Raven saw Kitty's expression fall and she groaned internally, being an empath she really didn't need this negative energy. Well more of this negative energy. For once the usually passive Raven had to be proactive.

"OK Kitty, I think Kara needs some quiet time."

"But she looks so sad ... I think I'll stay here till she feel better." and Raven actually felt a nerve in her head clench.

"Good idea, I was also about to start my meditation. Want to join?" and to add emphasis, Raven made the room go dark, her eyes glowing. She heard Kitty swallow.

"Actually you know what, I'll- I'll just come check on her tomorrow. See you in class tomorrow Kara!" the brunette called out before phasing out of the room.

It had been almost an hour and Kara still hadn't moved from her position. Raven looked up from her book. Not that she cared or anything...but…

"Want to listen to some Blondie?" and the panthress shook her head, not even looking at the pair of headphones Raven had levitated over.

"S'ok" and the older girl frowned as Kara went from laying in bed to out her window in one movement, barely moving a sheet. The fact the feline was basically in her underwear not seeming to be much a problem. Luckily it was already dark out but ... OK now she had to do something.

_Later That Night_

"Hey idiots." Raven called as a greeting as she approached Remy and Jason, the pair playing pool as the night winded down.

"Child of Doom, bringer of darkness, oh emo one above all." The two taking turns tossing out replies pretending to hail her as she entered the room. Raven just rolled her eyes at the stupidity of boys.

"You two still owe me right?" Raven didn't really ask as she looked between the two and pulled a piece of paper from her back pocket.

"What's this? Deer blood ... a list of first born ... some human organs you need for a ritual?" Remy wondered aloud as he took the paper.

"Very funny," Raven quipped back as Jason posted over the table to come see what was on the list, "can you get it?"

"Course Remy can get this stuff but ... this really what you want cheri? You got that class canceled and you wanna use yo fava on this?" Remy questioned while Jason seemed equally confused and frankly disappointed.

"Yea Raven I gotta say I'm lil worried about you. There's nothing on here we need to rob a crypt for. Or a gun depot. You sure you're not possessed?" Jason snarked

"Just get it." Raven threatened before turning back and going back to her room.

_The Next Morning_

Kara had once again angrily kicked the door in and had once again - and surprising no one at this point - shredded her way out of the light blue shirt Kitty had insisted would go so well with her eyes. Not that it mattered to the little panther who unceremoniously collapsed onto her mattress. Wait ...

"Did it get bigger?" and Raven shrugged, glued to her book as always. Swallowing a growl, Kara started to make her way through the pile only to stop in surprise, her ears twitching. Black tanks, shorts and right at the bottom ... Kara turned to look at her roommate who was doing a very good job of pretending she hadn't moved in the slightest all morning. But the panthress knew she had. Her scent was all over this stuff.

"Look don't make a big deal out of it. It's and old shirt and I can't have you making a mess and breaking down the door every day." and Kara smirked before gesturing to the shirt.

"Can I?"

"You do you. But please for the love of god don't get blood on it." and Raven tried her best to keep her face straight as she heard the familiar sound of a tail thumping excitedly. Kara quickly slipped on the band shirt, the sleeves already artfully cut, before carefully looking at the picture printed on it. It was the same as Raven's Green Day vynl.

Raven shared her Green Day.

* * *

It hadn't taken Logan long to find the AIM research lab he was looking for. That had been the simple part.

The part that was bothering him had been what he'd found there.

The place had been practically torn apart. He'd walked through the now empty building slowly, taking in everything he could. At this point the place had been scrubbed of bodies and anything worth recovering. But that didn't mean there was nothing.

The explosions had started from the middle of the building, small enough to only cause superficial damage, but enough to trigger a lockdown of the building. The damage was worse the higher Logan climbed, making him assume that was where the real battle had taken place. The research labs had taken the worse of it. Completely burned out judging from the scorch marks covering the walls.

But that had been the one thing that stuck with Logan as he rode back on his bike. The walls.

They had been covered in claw marks. Claw marks he recognized from a pantheress back at Xaviers. Just bigger. Much bigger.

Logan picked up his speed. He'd gone out to find answers and all he was coming back with was more questions.


	6. Gathering Shadows

**_Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy out there. Here's another chapter to get you through. As always, thanks Cheshire for the reviews and brainstorming when you should be sleeping. _**

* * *

"Another win for you Charles." Magneto's smile didn't match his tone as he waved his hand and the chess pieces on the board between the two old friends - and arguably worlds most powerful mutants in the world - moved back into place. The two sat in central park, as they had done decades ago.

"Care for another? I know the ruler of Genosha has many responsibilities." Xavier leaned back in his chair, enjoying the fall breeze as Erik took a deep breath.

"You have no idea, old friend. It's strange to think that after all these years not much has changed. Even your methods are getting a tad predictable." but the professor only smiled evenly. Even as Erik's knight made quite a show of devouring one of his pawns.

"I didn't come to discuss politics with you old friend but I know better then to try to stop you. Penny for your thoughts?" and something in the air shifted as the taller man took another of Charle's pieces.

"As if you don't already know. Tell me Charles ... what do you see out there in the world from inside your ivory tower?" and the professor shook his head, his own collection of Erik's fallen pawns growing.

"Why don't you indulge me?"

"Indulge you? Things have only deteriorated for our kind as yet another country passes laws designed to subjugated mutants. I fear Genosha is the only place left where mutants can be safe. I only hope I can save as many as I can. I WILL save as many as I can" Erik's tone edged with something more than simple determination.

"Then why not take up the UN's offer? Genosha should have a seat at the table of the world." Xavier pushed yet again. In truth this was something he had been pushing for behind the scenes for years. "This is a chance for our voices to be heard Erik."

"A hollow offer if there ever was one. A non-voting seat in exchange for letting humans - humans! - inspect Genosha. 'Inspect' ... as if I was a fool who would allow a single human to set foot on the one refuge for our kind." The pieces on the board rattled as the master of magnetism's as always calm demeanor could not hide his distaste. A few passerby paused but quickly resumed their journeys. Xavier simply steadied the board before claiming another of his opponent's pieces but Magento only continued.

"And what of my offer Charles. How much longer before your dear school is more a reservation than a haven? How long before it becomes your prison and I cannot reach you?" Magneto looked back at Charles who gave his own tired sigh.

"As much as I admire your skill at the game old friend I think you forget that this piece," and Xavier held up another one of Erik's pawns "is what many famous chess players call the "the soul of chess". And Erik watched as the first of Charle's pieces made it to his side of the board. "And rightly so, they can transform into any other piece except the king. You underestimate their power."

"I've never believed in the words of any fool claiming to be an expert. I also don't believe in wasting time to meddle and scheme. I lack your foresight Charles, but it would be in your best interest to not underestimate my power." and Erik's bishop slid onto Charle's side of the board.

It was quiet for a while, the two men concentrating on their game, no sound apart from the occasional tsk as their respective opponent collected more pieces. Finally each of them were left with only a few players. Xavier tried again.

"My goals remain the same Erik. We cannot retreat from humanity. There is still hope for unity."

"Hope," Erik scoffed, "that same hope is why you keep your precious school hidden I assume? Most already know the truth Charles. We need to focus on what is coming, not dreams."

"And what is coming Erik?" Xavier challenged, the first hint of edge in his voice.

"It is inevitable Charles. Don't pretend you haven't seen it in their thoughts. China has already claimed most of its mutants. The EU is pushing registration. A black market of mutant slaves across the globe. Ethnic cleansing in parts of Africa. Mutant soldier programs in Russia. The United States has already begun tagging mutants and we both know what that government has done to our kind already." Magneto's tone harder as he went on. They were both down to their last three pieces.

"So you would have me turn my students - children - over to you to become soldiers in a war with humanity?" Charles tone remained soft but the edge was undeniable. Radical mutant militia groups - terrorists as described by human media - had been sowing chaos across the globe for months. Seeming to undo every good deed the X-Men managed. Erik took a moment as if judging how far he could go this time.

"What would you call your precious X-Men?" and Xaivier eyebrow went up slightly, for a moment playfully wondering if it was Magneto who could read thoughts, as Magneto made his move.

"Well, hopefully with more time to fine tune, I hope for them to lead by example. A way to show the world that mutants can be leaders of peace. Beacons of hope for another mutants." Xavier explained for the hundredth time as he carefully considered how to go on from here.

"If that's true then allow me to train those mutants in your care. Your altruism blinds you Charles, why be beacons of peace when they can be champions of their kind." Magneto urged.

"By 'champions of their kind' ... you mean of war." Xavier challenged.

"We cannot allow those mutants that are capable of resisting the humans to be softened by your naivety Charles!" Magneto urged.

"Logan and Ororo has already -" but Magneto cut Charles off with a wave.

"Wolverine and Storm will have their roles to play. I am speaking of those mutants who must be protected until they are ready."

"Erik think of what you are saying. These are children. Not soldiers. Who could you possibly -"

"Give me the feral." Xavier went quite, honestly stunned at this turn.

"You can't - you're speaking of Kara? Erik she - how do you even know about her?"

"That is immaterial. She should be where she can be properly protected. Her skills nurtured. She should not be held back." and Magneto smiled as he signaled checkmate.

"Old friend, for someone who preaches on the importance of mastering your own potential, you're doing her a disservice by refusing to let her. Good day." and Xaivier watched as Erik seemingly faded into mist.

Across the globe, Xavier removed Cerebro and a frown remained firmly in place. He'd read the reports from the other staff on the newest feral to enter his school. He had brushed across her thoughts. She was shy but determined. A tad overwhelmed ... perhaps even on edge. Her past something she refused to focus on. But nothing he couldn't use to describe most of the new students in his school.

However, before Xavier could brush the entire conversation aside, the thought that Logan had left only a few days before forced him to pause. Magneto wanted Kara. He knew that Director Fury had visited Logan soon after Kara's appearance. And now Logan had rode off without much warning.

Xavier's frown deepened. He couldn't help but feel shadows lurking outside ... just beyond his grasp.

* * *

It was happening again. The third time that week.

The room a mix of shadows made of purple and black. Books and clothes slowly rotated around the room in different patterns. The candles on the desk flickered without being lit. The beds shook.

Raven was dreaming.

Kara stifled a yawn as she sat perched on the edge of her bedframe as she watched over her sleeping roommate.

This happened sometimes. Kara preferred to stay awake as opposed to getting hit with an errant flying textbook like last time. That and the random phrases Raven would sometimes shout out kept waking her up. The voice was definitely Raven's but ... different at the same time.

Watching was safer and Kara found it at least mildly entertaining to keep track of the patterns the floating books and furniture made .

"Azarath... Metrion... Zinthos…Azarath... Metrion... Zinthos!"and Raven suddenly shot up, gasping for breath, everything in the room hanging up in the air for a few moments before crashing heavily to the floor. They were once again in predawn darkness.

Raven tried to catch her breath, letting out slow gasps until her heart rate went back to normal. She shook her head, not so silently cursing at herself, before noticing that Kara was once again watching her.

"What are you staring at?" Raven hissed out, not looking directly at her roommate, but Kara didn't take the defensive attack, instead just watching, head tilted slightly to side, tail swaying ponderously, and silent. Raven seemed to be holding her breath as if waiting for Kara to do something say something ... anything.

But the little panthress was leaning foward, just curiously watching her roommate. There was some more silence before Raven made some internal decision as she slowly let out the breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. Her shoulders dropping slightly as she finally relaxed.

"Sorry." Raven muttered, shaking her head again, as she slid her legs over the side of the bed. The always carefully reserved empath too tired to pretend she was anything but exhausted. With a wave of her hand the scattered books and clothing floated back into place.

"Who's Trigon?" Kara's question got Raven to finally shoot Kara a look, the room lighting up a bit again with shadow.

"An asshole." Raven hissed the shadows behind her growing menacingly but Kara didn't seem the least bit bothered.

"You mention him a lot." the feline replied curiously.

"When would I - oh ... right." Raven took one look at her still mess of a bed. Glancing back at her, Kara could tell that Raven was clearly measuring her for something. For Raven, she struggled with where to start ... or whether she should start in the first place.

"Listen I - I'm not really a 'share' kind of person... But you've… You've stuck around longer than anyone else and ... and you deserve to know the truth." and as Raven began talking, she watched as Kara's tail slowed and the feline relaxed back onto her haunches, those amber eyes now focused only on her. Raven took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her legs folding beneath her into the same position she took when meditating.

"I - I guess it starts with my mom. She was young, rebellious, and stupid. So of course she ended up in a cult. Anyway, they decided to do some mutant doomsday ritual. And guess who got to be the lucky offering?" Raven gave a dark laugh, "I doubt any of them really thought it would work. But it turned out to be the real thing. So my mom, with her great powers of judgement, didn't hesitate to hook up with the guy who emerged from the smoke. But even she knew something was wrong ... evil with what had happened."

Raven paused, taking another slow breath before continuing. She realized she had never shared any of this besides for Professor Xavier and it just… it just felt so tiring lugging all of this with her all the time.

"My mom figured out pretty quickly that she was pregnant. She was afraid of what might happen to her ... to me. So she fled the cult. Was on the run with nowhere to go. But she got saved by these people ... the People of Azerath. I know it sounds dumb don't but," and Raven paused her whole body relaxing,  
" It - it was like another world. A place of beauty, light, peace, and tranquility. Where needless to say I did not fit in." Raven said with a sad sort of smile.

"Anyway, I must have inherited some of my mom's horrible judgement because when I got older, I thought that if I understood more about the monster that made me …" and Kara noticed how Raven's voice was tightening, "I'd be able to make sense of myself. Instead I - he found us. My mother. Azerath. And he ... he destroyed everything and ... Well you can guess the rest. The X-Men found me in the wreckage a few days later and brought me back here." Raven's voice had been at its usual monotone but at the end Kara could hear the tremble.

"Definitely an asshole." Kara growled, Raven blinking having closed her eyes without realizing it.

"So you believe me?" Raven's tone was clearly skeptical like she had expected a different kind of reaction, earning a chuff from Kara.

"Of course. Besides you're not lying. I could tell." Kara rolled her shoulders, clearly a little insulted by the question.

"No that - I just …" and Raven paused suddenly feeling lighter somehow. She'd honestly expected Kara to laugh ... or at least just brush it all off. The fact the pantheress believed her ... it felt like a bit of weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"Professor X doesn't exactly feel the same way." Kara's look was clearly a sign for her to continue, "He thinks it's all in my head. A coping mechanism. I mean yea my mom was part of a cult but he tells me there was no 'demon.' Just an abusive father who led a doomsday cult out in Idaho. Azareth wasn't some ... distant realm. It was a convent in Mexico for battered women and I - I found who my father was and didn't summon him but reached out over the internet like an idiot. When he came to take me back with some other cult members a fight broke out and ... that's when my powers surfaced. I'm no bringer of the apocalypse ... just a stupid girl who got her mom killed."

There was a pause between the two.

"True?" and Raven looked back up.

"Is it true?" and the empath lowered her head on her arms for a moment. She got migraines whenever she thought about this too hard.

"I - I honestly don't know anymore. Professor X showed me a bunch of papers that make him seem right it's just ... I can't shake the feeling that I'm right." and Kara went silent, she could tell from how Raven was holding herself it was time to stop.

A few moments of silence passed between the two girls as the room slowly lightened. Kara seemed to be content just watching Raven who eventually returned the look as a look of curiosity slowly came across her face as well.

"What about you?" Raven finally asked.

"What about me?" Kara replied evenly, her soft rumble filling the room as the pantheress suddenly seemed interested in her claws.

"No way. I don't share something like that and you get to hold back. Don't think I haven't noticed you not sharing your own backstory."

"I - nothing to tell." Kara managed out but Raven felt something emanating from the young feline. A warping kind of ... hollowness. Which almost was distraction enough as Kara tensed to clearly escape out the window which Raven quickly slammed shut.

"Tsk" For the first time the Raven walked over from her bed and took a seat on her roommate's bed.

"Bullshit. Empath remember? I can feel your ... well whatever that is. I know you have something to say Kara." Raven caught the look on Kara's face, her usually stoic gaze shooting another look at the window - well it was the closest thing to conflicted she thought that muzzle could get. There was silence for a while before the older girl tried again.

"Let's start off easy, where did you come from?" Raven reasoned.

"Come from?" Kara asked, clearly not enjoying this sudden turn on focus on her, Raven noting how Kara had started rubbing her shoulder ,the same as she always did when the feline got stressed.

"Before you came here." Raven nudged. Kara seemed to weigh that before coming up with an answer.

"The cave." Kara finally replied.

"The cave?" Raven's tone was clearly unimpressed, suspecting Kara was just deflecting, and Kara withheld a growl of frustration.

OK ... how did you end up in 'the cave'? I thought Logan brought you in?"

"He did," Kara rumbled, her tail picking up speed, "I - escaped but ... I was caught and they - they dragged me down to the cave ... I didn't like it down there. Boring. ngry. Sometimes they brought me out but that - that was not good ... tests ... fights ... hurt. But Logan came. Brought me here."

Raven had gone quiet at this point, it was weird but she didn't just pick up on what Kara was feeling. She could - it was like she could smell the dampness of the cave, feel the cold on her back. The older girl narrowed her eyes, just watching as the pantheress seemed to focus more as she haltingly spoke, her brow furrowing the more she went on.

"What about your parents?" Raven had felt more than seen from Kara's reaction at the mention of parents and Raven felt it again, stronger, like a pressure gnawing through her chest, her hearing becoming slightly drowned out. Raven rotated her shoulders.

"N - no mom." Kara managed out but Raven raised an eyebrow when the feeling changed, it was subtle but she felt it.

"OK ... what bout your dad?"

"Asshole." The panthress hissed out on reflex, her hackles raised and the older girl noticed how Kara had visible tensed up, her pupils constricting, fur standing on their ends. Raven frowned, her brows furrowing as she saw Kara's eyes narrow to slits.

"Welcome to the club." Raven half-joked, though Kara didn't seem to notice. Raven was ready to let things drop, getting up from the bed and was halfway in the room when a thought occurred to her.

"Where did you escape from?" Raven turned back to Kara who was still looking fixed at the floor and realized an answer wasn't coming, "Kara, where did you escape from?"

"Bad place." Kara rumbled out, but Raven didn't quite hear her as a hand went to her temple. The feeling coming off of Kara was - it was more than just bad. It was suffocating like being dragged down, squeezed through the floor.

"Kara what was the bad place?" Raven tried again, at this point Kara's eyes were shut, her breathing coming faster.

"Stop." Kara growled, but Raven could almost feel where the pain was coming from. And Raven bravely decided to take a stab.

"Is your dad at the bad place? Is that what - who you escaped from?" Raven suddenly faltered, bracing herself against her bedframe as a wave of mental nausea hit her. Kara however stayed rigidly in place aside from now gripping her shoulder.

"I - I don't know." Kara practically whispered out.

"Kara you can tell me."

"Stop it." Kara's eyes were screwed shut now, her tail completely still, ears flipped back, as her fur went on end.

"Kara why won't you just tell me?" Raven tried again.

"I - can't. Bad. Weak. Br - Break rule." Kara seemed to struggle to even speak, both hands now clutching her head, as Raven's vision was quickly trending towards double.

"Kara what's - why can't you tell me? Just -"

"STOP!" Raven crashed into the wall above her bed before crumbling onto it as if struck. But it wasn't from the roar or from Kara who had simply collapsed onto her own bed, that had caused Raven to fall. A wave of psychic energy had hit Raven, like a rubber band stretched too far, smacking her full force. But the pain she had felt had been very, very real. The searing pain in her shoulder only matched by the headache building in her head.

"Oww." Raven grumbled as she slowly got back to her feet.

"You OK?" Raven almost fell back onto her bed at the sight of Kara standing right in front of her.

"Yea I'm ... I'll be fine," Raven rubbed her temples and took a few meditative breaths before opening her eyes again to find Kara back to a respectful distance, "what about you?"

"What about me?" Kara repeated confused.

"You're kidding right? Kara what the hell was that?"

"Was what?" Raven had trouble processing that response for a moment.

"THAT" and Raven gestured at a sizable dent in her wall.

"Sorry." Kara replied seemingly on instinct.

"No ... No don't be sorry just-" and Raven pinched the bridge of her nose, "I've never felt anything like that before. Are you…" and Raven tried to continue carefully. "Are you OK? The bad place… do you want to tell me -"

"Can't talk about it." and Kara returned back to her bed, a little too casually for all that had transpired.

"But don't you want to tell me about your dad?"

"Asshole." Kara had thrown out casually and Raven blinked. Kara was completely calm and she was acting ... well Raven could feel it ... Weird. It was like the little feline hadn't registered what had just happened. And before Raven could say anything else, Kara had popped open the closed window and slipped out into the dawn.


	7. Answers & Questions

**_Shoutout to all the new followers and special thanks to Cheshire, Fluffybunny2, and __LoveKitaSoMuch for the reviews. Kita, without giving too much away, Kara is not psychic but she does have some more surprises ; ) Keep reviewing and asking questions and I'll do my best to answer.  
_**

* * *

"And then she left Professor. That's all that happened." Raven picked at her tights, a clear sign to Xavier that the young empath was uncomfortable with the topic of conversation.

"Rachel," Xavier's tone was soft as she briefly looked up from across the desk, "I'm honored that you felt you could tell me about what happened. And I think it's a positive step that you shared your story with Kara. But I know there's another reason that you have for telling me this story." Xavier nudged the girl gently.

"I don't -" Raven paused, realizing how ridiculous it must appear to try lying to the world's literal most powerful telepath, "it's not just what happened. It's what," And Raven caught the look the professor was giving her. "Don't make me say it." she grumbled.

"Say what?" Xaivier prompted with a slight smile earning a groan from the disgruntled teen.

"What I _felt_." Raven mocked, her voice going up a pitch before she slumped back down on her chair."I just ... I just don't know how to make sense of it." she finally admitted.

It had been two days since Raven had felt ... whatever she had felt when Kara's mind had lashed out at hers. She had meditated on it for hours, but felt no closer to understanding what she had seen ... felt ... sensed ... it was just so difficult to describe.

Xaivier watched the girl shift in her seat for a bit, choosing to ignore how she had propped her boots over the side of the expensive armchair obviously bothered. He clasped his hands together for a bit before deciding to take a stab in the dark. He knew how Raven prided herself in being reserved. Her feelings always in check. An apathetic empath ... a _young _teenage empath still unsure of her powers. Yet here she was showing obvious concern for a classmate. Xaivier decided to encourage this new development.

"I don't blame you Raven. Kara is an interesting one I'll give you that. Particularly for those of us who might peak into her mind," and he knew he got her attention, the girl's eyes shifting back to him. "That would be because Kara senses and remembers things differently than you or I."

"Differently?" and Xaivier reached over for the little model of the human brain from his desk.

"Yes see, while our long term memory is shaped by mostly what we see and hear, you can tell, because our hippocampus take up the most space."and the professor pointed at the model. "Those sights and sounds get translated or well connected to our associations with them: Happiness, sadness, anger. That's how we visualize and 'see' memories. Kara on the other hand, as a feral, has a more developed amygdala, specifically a more developed sense of memories based on fear." and Raven rolled her eyes.

"Yeah this is all sounding a little too much in the realm of eugenics to me. Also have you met Kara? That girl isn't scared of anything." and the professor chuckled.

"I don't mean fear in the traditional sense Raven. What I meant, is that as a feral, Kara is hardwired to survive, first and foremost and to do that, her brain employs all five senses to be aware of her surroundings. Whether to fight or take flight. Are the people around friend or foe. Therefore I believe she associates her long term memory differently from us." Xavier explained, his tone as if he was in class.

"That makes sense ... or at least helps me understand why I don't understand much of anything I get from Kara." Raven muttered.

"Would you allow me to help make sense of things?" and Raven saw the look Professor X was giving her. With a deep breath to center herself, and a somewhat reluctant grumble Raven nodded and the two closed their eyes as Xavier reached out to connect with Raven's mind.

'No wonder the girl is confused by what she felt.' Xavier kept to himself, careful to separate his thoughts from Raven. But it was indeed a cacophony of confusion. Barely a concrete image presented itself ... or any memory as he was used to seeing. It was as if everything Raven had sensed was jumbled together and hidden behind a distorted screen.

"Very interesting." Having seen enough, Xavier slowly left Raven's mind and allowed the typically guarded teen a moment to herself.

"See what I mean, Professor? It doesn't make any sense." Raven said, her frustrations clear. And Kara hadn't been any help ... the pantheress seemingly had no memory of what had happened and whenever Raven tried bringing it up Kara just got quite and slipped away. The fact that was her usual move only made it more annoying.

"Well let's try and make some sense then. Rely on your powers Raven. As an empath your connection to anothers emotions may be even deeper than their own. What _emotions_ did you sense?" Professor Xavier's question seemed to strike a chord with Raven who furrowed her brow as she worked to sift through the memory.

"Pain." Raven gritted her teeth at the sensation. It wasn't so much pain like being hit but the memory of being hit ... all the time. Everywhere. She felt alone. Helpless.

"Don't conflate your feelings Raven." Xavier corrected, and as usual he was right. Raven felt helpless ... the feeling she remembered from Kara was - was ... anger. Determination. Repetition.

"Training?" Raven tried and Professor X nodded in agreement.

"Look broader ... deeper." Xavier encouraged. Raven took another breath and tried to look past the feelings that had first assaulted her. To move past them ... around them.

For some time all Raven could sense was pain ... loneliness ... anxiety ... determination ... and then she came to it. The blank spot. The bubble.

"Do you see it Professor?" Raven asked, the caution clear in her voice.

"I do ... it appears to be a barrier. A rather strong one." Xavier's tone reminded Raven of Dr. McCoy when he analyzed a new specimen under his microscope.

"Is - is it dangerous?" Raven recalled the last time she'd tried pushing against it ... so did her wall.

"I'm not sure. This may be a block Kara's mind has put in place to protect her from some harmful memory. What do you sense Raven?" Raven braced herself and reached out.

"More of the same Professor ... but ... It's hard to describe ..." Raven paused.

"Yes?" Xavier urged, Raven unable to see the look of pride he had watching her work.

"Darkness. Shadows. Claws. Cold. But past that ... I'm getting ... a scent? It's warm. Safe." And for a moment Raven was able to sense as she imagined Kara did all the time. The scent more detail than she'd ever experienced with more information than she knew what to do with. But she knew the feeling. It reminded her of how she felt when she thought of -

"Her mother!" Raven hit the back of the chair as she jerked backwards as her eyes flashed open. She'd been so deep in the memory with Xavier that she'd almost forgotten where they were.

"Very good Raven. And if not her mother than certainly someone important to her." Professor X smiled, clearly proud of the young empath who rubbed her temples at the exertion. She'd never done something like that before. Combining her powers with a psychics.

"But why block that? What about all that -"

"I think that's enough for today Raven. I appreciate you trusting me to help you with all of this." Professor Xavier's tone was genuine but Raven knew when their time was up.

With a nod, Raven got out of her chair and headed to the door but stopped just before the handle.

"Professor ... I'm worried about Kara." Raven admitted, something Xavier knew to be true from the moment she'd entered his study.

"Kara is perfectly safe here, Raven. But perhaps it would be best if you kept an eye on her. And we keep what we may have learned to ourselves. Just for now." Xavier finished as he saw Raven chew on her lip but finally nodded and slipped out the door.

Xavier waited for her to be down the hall before leaning back in his chair and letting out a long sigh. Kara's revelations were enough to have Xavier engaged ... but it hadn't only been the young feral's memories he'd seen. Raven's nightmares were coming more frequently ... and clearer with each passing month.

Reaching into a drawer in his desk, Xavier pulled out a notebook and scribbled in a single word, 'Apocalypse'

* * *

Kara came into the bedroom with a smirk firmly in place.

It had been a good day. She'd figured out that so long as she rotated clothes and kept them mostly blood free, she could wear the running shorts and tanks she preferred. Kitty had tried saying something but Mako had cut in to say he liked her current clothes better than the suffocating outfits Kitty had insisted on and for some reason that had cut Kitty short.

Classes were getting easier. She still didn't understand what good most of these things were for in the real world but at least they were interesting. She'd had lunch with Dr. McCoy and he'd given her some more books. Now she had five books. Less than Raven ... but a start.

On some level, a part of her that she couldn't explain knew that all of this was almost too good to be true. But the panthress really REALLY couldn't help it when she allowed herself a low rumble and a fairly undignified leap into her new bed.

Raven had been listening to music and watched her roommate nuzzle her way into the sheets, the pillows, and even wrestle with her bolster a little before settling down in a little fort of her own making. Then she caught the look Raven was giving her.

"What?" Kara rumbled out from her den of blankets. Raven stared for another moment before shaking her head a little and reaching for the book she was intending to finish that night

"You do you kid." the purple haired teen said in a tone Kara would almost describe as encouraging. But as Kara settled in for the night, Raven shot the feral another look. Her time with Professor X had helped her figure out a little of the mystery that was her roommate, but as she looked over at Kara, Raven's interest in her roommate's strange memories had only continued to pique.

* * *

"C'mon Widow ... you really gonna make me play this game?" Logan called from Widow's couch. He'd finally gotten in touch with her after calling in a favor with Hawkeye. She'd given him a set of coordinates which had taken him just north of Portland, Maine.

Logan appreciated the location. Single road to the house. Fairly good security around the perimeter. Place was a touch too modern for his taste, all steel and glass, but Nat had always gravitated towards the finer things when she could.

"You know I'm not going to tell you what you want Logan. Otherwise you'd be having this conversation directly with Nick and not with me. Besides, you know he never tells anyone everything." Widow came back into the room dressed in sweats, her hair still wet from the shower. The Glock 26 not so subtly placed on the coffee table between them as she walked past.

"So you really gonna try and sell me that you were sent out to pickup a kid? A kid, in the middle of an Avenger's mission ... and you didn't ask why? C'mon Nat I know you, not your style." Logan's tone was enough for Widow to smirk.

"So you think I have style? Nicest thing you've ever said to me." And now it was Logan's turn to smirk as Widow pulled a folder out from her well stocked bookshelf. The other wall floor to ceiling glass looking out at the woods and mountains in the distance. There was no one for miles around.

"So what did you find?" Logan flipped through the few documents in the folder. There really wasn't much there. He recognized a few of the insignias on the documents. S.W.O.R.D. ... HYDRA ... 'Red Lotus' ... Hellfire Club ... AIM.

"Honestly? Not much. Ferals are a particular interest to basically every organization, operator, and scientist on the planet. Mostly thanks to you," Nat tipped her head in mock salute to Logan who just grunted in assent, "so there's always a market looking for a new one."

"So what Fury wanted a feral for himself?" Logan didn't bother keeping the heat out of his voice. But Widow just shrugged without much concern.

"Certainly seems that way. Least that's what I found. Fury wanted some type of weapon and I was sent after the kid."

Logan leaned back and thought of what he knew. What Natasha said made sense but it didn't quite fit.

"What are you not telling me Nat?" Black Widow was one of the top operators in the world. She might have been the best liar in the world period. But Logan was one of the best too. Everyone had tales ... even the infamous Widow. And Logan had seen them all.

Widow just scoffed as she crossed her legs and leaned into her very comfortable leather couch, occupied with toweling her hair. But Logan pressed harder.

"You haven't been at your New York City loft for weeks. You're not at your place in Geneva. You shot yourself in the god damn shoulder to cover losing the kid to me. You got a 50 cal on the roof. You've looked out at the woods twice now. And," Logan tapped his nose. "I know this place is laced with enough C4 to level it to Latveria."

Logan leaned forward as Widow kept her eyes on Wolverine as if nothing he had just said was true.

"And you recognized Kara," Logan deliberately using the feline's name now, "When we were down in that hole." and could tell that struck something. It had been very brief, almost undetectable even to his enhanced senses, but that slight hesitancy behind that blink was enough.

"What's goin' on Natasha? What's got you spooked?" Nat looked Logan over, clearly working out what part of the truth to tell him before rolling her eyes in resignation.

"_Der'mo_," Nat cursed as she ran a hand through her red hair, "it was nothing Logan. I was young. Inexperienced. Its basically a ghost story."

"Spill it." Logan growled and the redhead narrowed her eyes, Logan could tell she was trying to read him, to see what she could get her way around.

"I was fresh out of the Red Room. My team was contracted to take out a Middle Eastern sheik. Didn't have a name. Didn't really matter to us. Just another target. We were on site. But we weren't the first ones there."

Natasha shook her head, clearly back in the memory. Logan noted the rapid eye movement.

"The place should have been a mess. Bullets. Scorch marks. Chunks missing out of walls. It's what we would have left for a place that well protected. But there was just ... bodies. The entire place had been wiped out."

"A team beat you to the target?" Logan wondered, but Natasha shook her head.

"Possible but unlikely," she said matter of fact before going serious again. "But it wasn't a team. Each body was laid out one after the other. Same style of kill. No resistance. Whoever had gone through there had taken them out one at a time without anyone else noticing." Logan could tell from Nat's tone that this had made quite the impression.

"C'mon Nat ... either one of us could pull that off. I could list another five that might be able to do the same." Logan insisted but Nat just gave Logan a look that made it clear she wasn't finished.

"I would agree with you Logan." and he noted the hardness in her tone."But can you name Nextwave? U-Foes? The Inheritors? " and he furrowed his brows.

"Exactly." Natasha pointed out "Our shadow turned them all into ghost stories. Literally. Taken down before they could even get started." She said it as a joke but it predictably failed to distract Logan.

"So this spook took out some D- Listers, Big deal-"

"H.A.M.M.E.R., HYRDA, AIM ... Heard from them lately?" and there was silence, the two of them looking at one another before Widow crossed her arms.

"Speaking of which, why didn't you go to Nick? You figure out that he's been pretty quiet after he paid that school of yours a visit? Might want to check up on him." and Logan got out of his seat. Now he understood what had Nat so spooked. Honestly this would have been enough for him but he had to know just one more thing.

"But you did see something,"and he gave her one last knowing glance, "Didn't ya?"

"I ..." Widow rubbed her hands together as she bit her lip. There was more silence before she looked him in the eye.

"Whatever... thing ... did that to the target it - it did the same thing to my team. All six of us. That many Red Room operatives are capable of toppling a mid-size government in a day. It, whatever it was, took us out one by one. I never even saw it Logan. Only reason I made it out at all was I jumped out a fifth floor window and had to practically crawl back to Russia."

Logan leaned back again as Widow pushed off the couch and walked back over to look out the window as if deep in thought. Logan gave her a second before joining her.

"There's no way Kara could do what you said. She's good but young. Raw. It doesn't fit." Logan tried but Widow wasn't looking at him.

"If it was me?" Widow husked out, her back still to Logan, suddenly very interested in drying her hair again, "I'd go straight into that school of yours and put an end to it. Cause Logan I don't care what kind of weapon that kid might be ... it's going to bring something worse to your door."


	8. Evaluation

**_Another post and another thanks to Cheshire for the review. Logan and Widow are too fun to write together and I got a feeling they'll be bantering and kicking ass together again soon. I won't get too into what will go on with Raven but she's always been one of my favorite characters and fitting her into the X-Men/Marvel universe is full of possibilities. _**

**_Rest of you, enjoy the next chapter and should be back to a regular posting schedule for the next couple of weeks. Lemme know what you think!_**

* * *

"It really isn't that big of a deal." Rogue tried as she and Kitty leaned against the wall across from the entrance of the Danger Room.

"Yea we all do it. It's actually kinda fun! You know - unless Professor Logan's detentions involved." Kitty added, the pair sticking to their spot as they carefully watched Kara pace in front of the door.

"This is a bad idea." Raven muttered for what felt like the dozenth time. While Kara hadn't spoken a word since this morning.

She'd been stupid. So stupid. She hadn't meant to be stupid, it just… happened ... and now she was in trouble.

She could have just let it go. She should have just let it go.

She'd finished with art class. Which she still had trouble understanding. She didn't 'draw' ... she could just copy what she saw. No big deal. But Piotr, who ran the art studio, liked what she copied so that was nice. He'd been having her try and draw things outside of just what she saw. It was different but she'd been having a good time and after class she'd gone looking for Raven.

She had tracked Raven walking to another class. There had been a group following her and Kara noted their body language and how they were laughing. It felt wrong. And that's when Kara got it.

They were saying things _about_ Raven.

Calling her Witch. Demon. Freak. Kara watched as Raven just kept walking. Her face was completely still, but her eyes were almost glowing. Kara wondered if this was why Raven always had her headphones with her. Then someone had used their powers and suddenly Raven's things were all over the ground. Kara bristled but didn't move. She expected someone to help like a Kitty or a Rogue ... even Jean. But the group kept saying thing and Raven's shadow had started to grow.

That's when Kara made herself known, coming out of her corner and silently helping Raven pick her books up. The feline felt her ear twitch. The group had paused for a second, clearly not expecting her, but they quickly started again. Except they were now saying mean things about ... her?

Kara narrowed her eyes as a strange rushing sound filled her ears. She had never even met these people but she already felt the growl forming in her throat. They didn't stop. They kept saying what she knew were supposed to be mean things. If she could even talk. If she shed. If she was missing a collar.

If the group had been at all observant they would have noticed how Kara slowly stood up and was eyeing each of them teeth bared. Then the two closest to her had asked if she was Raven's pet.

That's when they found themselves on the ground, their noses bleeding from Kara's elbow. The panthress growled, she was no one's pet, and she would have gotten to the rest but then a sudden flash of red had shot between them and Scott had appeared. Kara frowned, she'd seen Scott around. He was what Raven called "popular" with everyone. Even the teachers. He was tall with a lean frame and a square jaw. She couldn't tell what color his eyes were because he always wore red glasses. Now she knew why.

Raven had called him 'the Ken to Jean's Barbie.' Rogue called him a drill sergeant. Kitty said he was dreamy. Kara wasn't really sure what any of that meant but she knew he led the X-Men and that now he was yelling at - at them?

"You can all shut it. I saw what happened. You alright Raven?" Scott asked above the heads of the group at a now standing Raven who just nodded, her gaze far more focused on Kara who was trying her best to recede to the background.

"But she started it! She - she broke Vincent and Christine's face!" But Scott had just sent the entire group to see Dr. McCoy. Kara had seriously thought of running, down the hall, through the window and out of sight but she knew better. It was ALWAYS worse if you ran. So when Scott had finally turned to face her she'd braced herself for what she knew was coming.

But instead of yelling at her ... Scott was just smiling and looking at her. Kara's ears went from straight up to flat against her head. She recognized that look. That smile. It was worse than yelling or punishment.

"Your new. Kara right?" Scott took the feral's silence as a 'yes.' "Well I'm Scott. Pretty sure you've met Jean before." The red head gave a small wave from further down the hall but Kara ignored it and just kept her amber eyes locked on Scott. She knew it was coming.

"So not sure if anyone's told you yet but we do evaluations for all the new students. I know you're a bit young but ... from what I saw… I think it's past time we got you down in the Danger Room. An hour sound good?"

Kara seemed to deflate for a moment, her shoulders dropping as her tail went still. But it was only for a moment as she took a breath and looked back up at Scott and nodded.

"Great. Just grab a training uniform from the locker room and I'll see you down there." and Kara had waited for Scott and Jean to disappear down the hall before punching a locker which had crumpled from the impact.

"Stupid." Kara growled to herself. She'd gone looking for Logan but then remembered that he'd left.

Last week she'd been up late padding through the school looking for him. It had taken her most of the night and faded scent in his room for her to figure out he was gone. Kitty had assured her that happened sometimes. It hadn't made her feel much better.

"Hey you're not stupid," Rogue interrupted, "those idiots were stupid. Just sorry I wasn't there to see you break Christine's jaw." Rogue actually sounded wistful, earning a chuff from Kara.

"Am stupid." Kara growled as she resumed pacing.

"Why would you say that?" Raven asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because now they'll know." Kara reply got all three to raise eyebrows now.

"Know what?" Raven tried prompting Kara into telling her something more but knew that with Rogue and Kitty around that was basically impossible but it didn't matter as the Danger Room doors chose that moment to slide open. Kara stopped pacing and squaring up the feline released a slow breath and with a whip of her tail stalked into the space.

"Not good."

All three girls gave each other a look before Rogue and Kitty sprinted for the observation room. Raven kept her eyes on the now closed door before following much slower with a slowly growing pit in her stomach an acidic kind of smell in her nose.

"I know this is a bad idea." Raven muttered as she made her way up the stairs to the observation room. It was normal for some of the X-Men and other students to come watch a new students evaluation. Who didn't want to see something new ... even in a school full of mutants?

There was even a scoreboard that was projected in the Danger Room with different students rankings and scores. Overall. By program. It was the closest the school got to intramural sports.

Kara didn't know any of that or notice anything beyond what was right in front of her. She'd experienced a lot of new things since she'd arrive a few weeks ago. This wasn't new. This she understood.

"OK Kara ... we're gonna start you off nice a easy. Basic obstacle course. Ready?"

"Ready." Kara's growl was piped into the observation room which Raven saw was pretty full. Most of the X-Men were there besides Scott including Jean, Bobby, Piotr, and Amara. Not to mention some other students like Remy, Mako, Lance, and Tabitha mixed in with Rogue, Kitty, and herself.

"Alright on the mark." Scott gave a quick nod to Bradley, and a short, wiry somewhat nerdy Irish teenage technopath training to be on the team placed a hand on the console. Soon a clock counted down from 10, the Danger Room transforming into a multi-tiered obstacle course.

It wasn't long before most of the room was cheering as Kara sped through the course, moving easily from sprinting to all fours, to leaping over barriers, to scaling walls, to avoiding paintballs.

As Kara crossed the finish line Kitty and Rogue bumped fists as the entire group looked to see where Kara's time would be."Top ten! Wait - top four if you don't count speedsters! Way to go Kara!" Scott had to grab the microphone back from an overexcited Kitty, though he was smiling too. The kid was fast. Moved with confidence. He was sure in a few years…. hell less then that she could be an amazing addition to the X-Men.

Scott was 17 and had already been working with the X-Men for over a year. Xavier had put him in charge of scouting younger students for potential X-Men. I mean sure ... Ororo and Logan were in charge of the team but he knew it was only a matter of time before he'd get his chance and he'd prefer that to be soon.

"Very nice Kara. You need a break?" Scott got another growl with a shake of 'no.' "Alright so this next part is a simple combat progression exercise. Pretty simple. Just beat the opponent and the next one will materialize, each one a bit tougher than the next."

Scott gave Bradley another nod as down below Kara cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders.

It started off slow. Generic people you'd see on the street tried attacking the young feral. Next came a security guard, then a police officer, followed by an unarmed MRD soldier. Each one separated by a 30 second break.

These Kara did away with ease. The fact she only had to hit them hard enough in the right places was clearly surprising after the first two.

"I didn't even get past the police officer." Kitty muttered in awe to Rogue who nodded her head in agreement. She had fared better… she had at least gotten stuck at the MRD. Scott meanwhile had a bigger and bigger smile.

"Incredible." Scott said out loud, clearly excited, as he gave Bradley another nod, indicating to move to the next level.

Now mutants appeared, each with one type of power or another. Fire. Ice. Flight. Teleportation. These Kara picked up she had to hit a bit harder and a few more times.

None made it more than a few minutes. Scott could barely hear himself as the entire room had resumed cheering, watching Kara's name slowly make its way up the leaderboard.

"Huh at this rate… I think she can use the main team's configurations." Scott mumbled to himself just loud enough for Bradley to hear, who gave Scott a raised eyebrow but not wanting to bug Cyclops just closed his eyes and put his hands back on the console.

Kara was focused but somewhat relieved to find this evaluation was fairly simple. Harmless really. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe -

Kara let out a hiss of pain as she was hit from behind by a shock of electricity. Quickly rolling out of the line of fire she saw three MRD soldiers approaching, weapons drawn. She recognized those weapons. They had - They had been the same from the cave.

With a roar Kara sprinted towards the group and quickly disarmed one of the soldiers with an audible crack of bone and to everyone's shock turned the weapon on the other three. There were outright gasps from the students above. Most of them were used to seeing their enemies disabled ... maybe knocked unconscious. These ones didn't disappear and Kara had barely skipped a beat, not stopping until she'd snapped the neck of the second and jammed the electric gun under the helmet of the third and final soldier until he fell.

The fact blood was now involved not registering with the feral.

Immediately four members of the Purifiers appeared. Kara didn't hesitate and dove into the next group. The feral wasn't just beating them. She was killing them. And where with the MRD it had been with weapons, now the panthress was breaking them down and - and tearing them apart with tooth and claw. Right up until the final soldier who she shot clear from across the Danger Room. The bang of the shot echoing through the observation room.

Meanwhile any cheers that had been emanating in the crowded room had died until it was complete silence.

Purifiers.

Reavers.

Toad and Pyro.

There was an unspoken kind of horror in the room. Where everyone had silently agreed that this has gone too far. But it was like no one dared to say anything. It was all happening too fast.

"I - I think we should stop." Jean finally managed out, her voice barely a whisper. But it was enough to shake Scott.

"Bradley? BRADLEY!" and Scott started to make his way to the technopath but the teen seemed almost transfixed as he watched what was happening below. Muttering curses Scott started to try and manually override the board himself but it didn't seem to be working. What had Bradley done?

Quicksilver

Lady Deathstrike and a trio of cyborgs.

Kara was now hunched over and shaking from the adrenaline, multiple slashes and burns forcing her healing factor into overdrive. She - she knew she was almost spent. But then a scent hit her and the feline immediately straightened up, hackles on edge, a snarl filling the now empty space as the remaining bodies disappeared.

Kara roared and charged straight at the new opponent.

"Raven are you - you OK?" Rogue had been as struck numb as everyone else but had heard a noise from the corner and saw Raven stumble and brace herself against the wall.

"We - we gotta stop it." Raven muttered.

"What?" Rogue leaned down to try and get a better look at the usually stoic girl from below, before stumbling back, a little freaked out by how Raven's eyes were looking at her and yet past her at the same time. Meanwhile below, Kara roared in pain as she she kicked and clawed helplessly while she was pinned against a wall, her face being cruelly forced into the panels.

By a laughing Sabertooth.

"STOP IT!" Raven screamed, hands gripping the side of her face while her eyes flashed pure white and suddenly it was like the rest of the mutants around her were shocked back to their senses.

"Shut it down! Bolt shut it down now!" Scott now shouted taking advantage of Bradley's sudden confusion, his hands still racing over the console but all it took was Bradley quickly putting his hands on it and quickly the simulation disappeared, just leaving Kara on one knee, her other arm across her stomach where blood was flowing freely.

A stream of growls came from the feral, teeth bared, her hackles on end. Most of her training uniform torn away so that the slowly healing slashes were clearly visible. The observation room silent once again as they just stared as the panthress below snapped and bared her teeth at nothing … as if Creed was still standing there. The fact her blood was dripping steadily onto the floor not seeming to register.

A few minutes passed and slowly the pantheress took a few breaths and gave her head a shake. Kara struggled back to her feet before turning to stare almost defiantly up at the observation room, and without another word, limped out of the Danger Room.


	9. Aftermath

_**First a special shout out to Cheshire and LoveKita for the reviews. Cheshire I won't get too deep into how Creed plays into all this but you could definitely say it was personal with how Kara reacted to seeing him. LoveKita, so Logan's read is that Kara is just too young to be the assassin that Widow remembers. It's definitely something that's bothering him and makes some kind of sense of why so many are interested in the pantheress but I'd trust Logan on that point. As for what happened with Kara at the end there she went full feral ... I promise that gets more fully explained in this chapter and Logan again will have some good insights so I'll just let him explain it.  
**_

* * *

The room was silent for the first few minutes as the assembled mutants reflected on what they had seen in the video. There was a number of shared glances and raised eyebrows.

Naturally it was Storm who broke the silence.

"What happened?" a distant hum of thunder not missed by the group, but the white haired mutant held her stern gaze as she turned to look at Scott. The tone she addressed him with had the teen taking a deep breath.

"It was supposed to be a standard evaluation. I - none of that was supposed to happen. Bolt lifted the safeguards and -"

"Standard evaluation?" Storm cut in, "Where was Logan? Where was I? You do not have the clearance or the experience to oversee an evaluation."

There was a crackle in the air and Scott shot a brief look at Xavier, clearly seeking some sort of reassurance but thus far, the professor remained silent, his eyes on the video still replaying in front of him.

There was a bit of quiet, the hard headed teen lowering his head for a moment as he clearly searched for some misplaced confidence. He found it.

"You and Beast were on a mission. Wolverine's been gone for over a week. Kara was overdue for her evaluation and I stepped up." Scott pushed back. "And I know things got out of control, that's on me, I don't deny that but - you saw that same thing I did. She's years ahead of the other students." The excitement was clear in Scott's voice now. "With the right training she could be a huge asset to the team."

"Out of control," Now it was Dr. McCoy who spoke as he carefully removed his glasses, his usual jovial demeanor gone, "is a gross understatement. Do you have any idea the danger you placed Kara in? Not to mention every other student in this school ... yourself included?" and the doctor's tone made Scott reconsider his words all of a sudden.

"Danger? Hank come on she - I know she got knocked around and like I said, that's my fault, I apologize for that. But she can clearly handle herself. If anything this just showed she should be training more-"

But Beast held up a hand as he fast forwarded to the end of the video.

"You pushed a feral, Scott. A young feral who is still developing her powers and sense of control. I have no doubt that had you or any other student - any of us for that matter - been in the Danger Room at that moment she would have done something that she would have regretted for the rest of her life. Tell me Scott, if that had happened, what would you have done, knowing that this was YOUR fault."

Scott opened his mouth to respond but Jean placed a hand over his.

"Hank is right Scott. Her mind it - she wasn't herself. No that's not right," Jean shook her head at the memory. At the anger. The fear. The rage. She had never felt anything quite like it… it was terrifying. The complete lack of control.

"She was in full fight or flight ... pure instinct. She could have killed someone. You should consider yourself lucky she didn't." Dr. McCoy finished his gaze still pinned on the young Cyclops who's visor suddenly gleamed red.

"You're making this more than it was Hank. We were all safe. I followed protocol." and Jean quickly tried to again place a calming hand on her boyfriend's shoulder, before he said anything that would get him into deeper trouble but-

"Not to mention we've seen Logan flip before. He's never attacked any of us." Scott seeded. "If Logan -"

"I'd be careful using Logan as a shield if I were you," Ororo's tone low, "because I doubt you'll be the one he's looking to protect when he gets back." and that finally got Scott to go quiet while the rest of the room stewed a bit more.

"Can - can I ask a question?" Amara was the youngest member of the team, a year younger than Scott and Jean and the newest. It wasn't long ago that she'd been outside these kinds of meetings and the teen was still trying to find her place. Not knowing what exactly she should have been saying or doing for that matter … BUT SHE HAD TO SAY SOMETHING. This had been bugging her for the past few hours since the meeting started.

"Where's Kara now?" and Amara looked around the room, assuming someone had an answer.

"I had her briefly in the infirmary," Beast sighed, "but she seemed distant. Exhausted. Not sure I got more than a few words out of her and once I was certain she hadn't suffered any major injuries she simply left."

"So ... no one knows where she is?" Amara's tone was clearly surprised.

"Kara is in the Mansion and we should count ourselves lucky for that." Xavier responded, his eyes still locked on the again replaying video. The rest of the room once again shared a collective look, clearly waiting for the professor to continue.

"For now, the best thing we can do is to give her space and support. Don't push her ... but let her know that she is still safe here." Xavier finished though his tone was still distracted.

"Safe - Professor I - let me talk to Kara." Scott urged, "I never meant for anything bad to happen."

"You," Xavier finally looked up from his screen and Scott almost winced from the disappointment in Xavier's eyes, "will leave Kara alone. What she needs now is to feel safe. And her friends."

* * *

"You think she's OK?" Bolin asked his brother as he shot another look up the stairs.

"Trust me she'll be fine," Illyana whispered, "the real question is if we'll be OK."

"What does that even mean?" Rogue shot back, her tone challenging as she squared up against the thin blonde.

"You tell us. From what we heard Kara went crazy down in the Danger Room and almost killed everyone." Illyana rushed out, a number of shared looks around the group showing they'd heard some version of the same thing.

"That's NOT what happened," Kitty glared at Illyana, "Kara didn't attack anyone. She just... did her evaluation..." but literally everyone could hear how the brunette's tone wavered at the end.

"Oh yea then why don't you go check on her then?" Illyana responded slyly, getting Kitty to open and close her mouth a few times before shooting a pleading look at Rogue who pointedly was looking elsewhere.

"I heard from Gambit that she vas incredible. She beat every student score and only stopped because Scott got upset she beat him." Kurt offered, but Rogue shook her head.

"First of all, just call him Remy, Gambit is such a dumb name. Second of all, that's not why Scott cut it short. Besides you shoulda' seen the way Ororo looked at him before she left." Rogue corrected shivering a little at the memory. No way in hell would she ever want to get on the storm goddess's bad side.

"Anyone think this is kinda Scott's fault?" Jubilee suddenly piped up. "I mean ... he was the one who kinda forced her to do it."

"That's silly Jubes. Scott's team leader." Warren butted in, clearly offended on the latter's behalf. It wasn't a secret that Warren dreamed of being on the X-Men and in turn idolized Cyclops.

"I just hope they don't have her train with any of us. I mean I had my concerns since the whole thing with Mak-" but he stopped when the fire bender in question suddenly conjured a ball of flame.

"Shut it Warren." he warned while Kitty and Rogue stuck their tongues out in agreement.

There was some awkward silence, the whole group suddenly not knowing what to say.

"I mean ... where did she even learn to ... well do whatever she did?" Bolin finally wondered out loud. Igniting another round of hushed whispers.

"Well Kara did say she came from a hole…"

"Wait like a hole, hole?"

"Yea thats what I said!"

"That's dumb…"

"YOU'RE DUMB!" and the whole group went at it again before Illyana scoffed.

"OK lets be honest...What do we even really know about her? She could be a spy or something." the blonde hissed out, but Mako just shook his head and shot her a look.

"I don't think-"

"You idiots do realize that Kara can probably hear all of you ... right?" The group took a collective step back as Raven appeared walking down the hall.

"What? N - no way." Illyana still whispered back, though she shot a nervous glance back up the stairs. Raven however wasn't interested in debating, the stoic teen noticeably pissed.

"Aren't you all her f'riends'? Didn't you all make such a show of welcoming her into your grop? Oooh come sit with me Kara, be on my team Kara. And what? She does her evaluation and she's suddenly too dangerous? You're all scared now?" Raven shot a look around the group.

"Tell me this, how scared do you think Kara must have been to act that way back there?" Raven's voice was quiet… too quiet but to the group, it felt like they were receiving a scolding from Jean or Ororo. They might as well have been and each one of them hung their heads, unable to look the older girl in the eye.

"You… are all such… Children." Raven spat out through gritted teeth before forcefully stalking through the quickly departing group and heading upstairs.

Of course it wasn't just the younger students whispering about what had happened. Somehow it seemed all of Xavier's was sharing rumors of what had happened down in the Danger Room.

She had known this was a bad idea... She should have stopped it. Why hadn't she stopped it? She could have talked to Scott after picking up her books, or… she could have stopped Kara from punching those two idiots… Literally Raven could have intervened at any time but did not… Stupid! Now she felt guilty and it wasn't even her fault. Wonderful.

Raven stopped short when she opened the door to her room and didn't find Kara. Silently cursing, she tried thinking where the missing feline could be having already checked the barn, gym, and the library.

Raven got it right on the third guess and with a fair bit of hesitation slowly opened the door to Logan's room.

Kara was there.

Not crying. Not curled up. Not prowling. Not even pacing.

Her head was resting on her arm as she looked out the window, the rest of her sprawled out on the leather chair Logan had by the window. She didn't even look upset.

But that wasn't what really surprised the empath. Raven had braced herself for all kinds of emotions coming off of her roommate but all she was getting was ... nothing. Like a was actually kind of worse than the torrent she'd been expecting. The entire school seemed on edge and here was the cause of it calm and ... empty.

"Kara…" and Raven slowly made her way to the pantheress who had yet to register her presence beyond an ear flick.

"Kara are you ok?" and the pantheress finally lifted her head to look at Raven and she noted how she could see her reflection so clearly in those amber pupils. How where they typically seemed so intense now seemed distant.

"I'm fine." Kara rumbled and resumed looking out the window.

"Yea ... fine." Raven not hiding her sarcasm as she folded her arms taking in the feline, "you really gonna just lay there and pretend like nothing happened down there?"  
"I know what happened." Kara replied flatly.

"OK then how about you fill me in?" Raven pressed.

"Evaluation." Kara's tone was flat but a strong sense of resignation and sadness flashed off of Kara for a moment and it caused Raven to shake her head.

"No - I mean yea it was an evaluation. Rogue and Kitty were right, we all do it." Raven shrugged, clearly not getting what had her roommate so ... well maybe not upset but definitely something.

"The same." Kara replied, her eyes still unfocused even as her brow furrowed.

"The same as what?" Raven pressed.

"Them." Kara tone might have remained flat but her claws slipping out to dig slightly into the wood of the windowsill caught Raven's attention.

"Who the hell are - oh ... _them_." Raven's shoulders dropped as it hit her. The older girl paused for a second, knowing she had to be *careful* with how she was going to go from here.

"Listen," and Raven crouched down so she was at the same level with Kara who tilted her head to look at her, "Scott is an idiot. But he's nothing like the assholes who had you before. No one here is... I mean c'mon, think I'd stick around otherwise?"

Kara looked away from Raven, but the empath could tell her roommate was clearly weighing out what she said even if there was no response. Raven pushed ahead.

"Do you really think Professor Logan would do that to you?" Raven tried again, but quickly stood back up as Kara's deep low rumble.

"Logan not here. He left." It was the fact that the feline had enunciated every word that had Raven worried.

"OK OK..." and she slowly held up her hands, she didn't need to be an empath to sense the growing hostility. There was more silence again, Raven almost half expected sobbing but Kara just stared blankly at her like a statue. It was actually a bit unnerving ... even for Raven.

"How about we just get dinner? Sound good?" At least there was movement again.

"Yeah." and Raven didn't question Kara taking the long way around to the kitchen which happened to avoid the group of kids left whispering at the bottom of the stairs.

Dinner wasn't good. Internally Raven kicked herself for not just grabbing some food and heading straight to their room. Cause Kara was quiet. Like too quiet. I mean don't get her wrong ... Raven liked her quiet but this was just on another level.

Kara had gone through the dining room almost soundlessly and even eating right across from her Raven felt like if she didn't keep an eye on her the feline may just disappear. Like a ghost and - well she really wanted answers.

But right now she guessed it was better to settle for what Kara wanted and it was something she could respect: Distance. Raven decided it was honestly safer to respect that option.

"Um Kara?" and Raven really tried not to curse. Really? Right now?

"Kara we-" and Rogue intervened for the stumbling Kitty.

"We wanted to tell you that you were so awesome at the evaluation!"

"Yeah! and the whole um... Flipping out part wasn't your fault! Scott really messed up. It - he never should have used Sabertooth!"

Raven felt the impact of the crash before she registered it. There hadn't even been a snarl from Kara and the three girls could only stare at the broken remains of what once was the table while Kara's shoulders shook.

Without a word, the feral got up and made her way through the dining room, seemingly oblivious to the quickly parting sea of mummers around her. She'd heard what they said. She knew what they were saying. Thought she was dangerous.

A part of Kara that had been silent for weeks whispered in her head, "Good."

"Nice going." Raven seethed at the trembling Kitty and stunned Rogue before trying to go after her roommate but by the time she got to their room, Kara was nowhere to bee seen.


	10. A Friend in the Woods

**_Apologies for the bit of a delay but it's an extra long chapter (for me) so that's gotta count for something right? Also thanks as always to Cheshire for the review. _**

* * *

Kara looked up at the darkened window to her and Raven's room. She liked Raven. She liked her room. She liked her books and Raven's music… She really liked her bed.

A light had turned on in the students wing. Then another. Kitty and Rogue's room. If she listened close enough she could even hear the living room. Students awake ... and playing games ... Remy beating Professor Drake in pool. Someone mentioning 'the feral.'

Kara had already started sprinting on all fours towards the forest before she'd even let herself make the conscious decision. The forest was safe. No one whispered about her in the forest. No one was afraid of her in the forest. No one tried using her. Or evaluating her. No one pretended to care.

In the forest she could just ... be.

And to be fair, she had tried sticking around, to give it a chance like Raven said. Ignoring everyone. At first the forest had simply been a place to spend in between classes. A place where she could eat in peace and quiet.

_Kara hadn't broken stride as she walked in to Professor Monroe's classroom. The fact the room went silent as she quietly headed for her seat in the back corner of the room not seeming to register with the feline. She had just slipped into her seat, opened her book, and looked straight ahead until Storm came in and started teaching._

_"Did you hear what happened?"_

_"I heard she almost killed Scott."_

_"I heard it was Jean. First Mako ... now X-Men. Who's next?"_

_"Did you see what she did to that table?"_

_"I mean she can barely talk. Have you heard her try and read? I don't even know what she's doing here."_

_"Are you that surprised? Just look at her."_

_"Class!" Ororo's voice quickly quieted the whispers that had steadily filled the room, "less talking. More listening. Now let's pickup where we left off with - well let's review the chapters you were all assigned over the weekend."_

_Ororo's pause caught Raven by surprise, but catching where she looked, the teen turned in her seat and silently cursed. Kara's book was on the floor while her seat was empty. The window next to her desk now wide open._

_Raven was the first but not the last to notice and soon the whispers about the dark feral whipped into a frenzy._

Kara had headed straight for the woods and didn't bother coming back until after the mansion had fallen asleep. It had been the first day she hadn't snarled at anyone in a while. It helped her feel calm.

In fact it was maybe the only place she had left.

_She'd been back in the gym. She'd tried going when she thought no one else would be there and it was mostly successful. That late at night... only a few of the older students had been there._

_She'd been practicing on the wing chun, slowly but smoothly moving from one position to another, it helped her a bit ... the rhythm. Doing something familiar. _

_Then there was this older boy who came right over to her. The gym was huge, practically empty, but he still asked her to move. She'd ignored him. He tried coming closer so she'd growled at him. He said something stupid to his friends. _

_"Not everyone is scared of you ya know. Now why don't you be good little girl and -" and the next thing she knew a weight was embedded in the wall right next to his head. He had ran out terrified._

_Kara gave herself a little shake as she landed in the woods … The thing was, she barely remembered throwing it. She didn't remember being - being this angry. Lesson learned. That had been the last time she'd gone to the gym. The next morning she'd headed straight for the woods._

Kara folded her ears back as she picked up speed, maneuvering easily between the trees. She knew that Professor Storm and Dr. McCoy wanted her to come back. At least that's what they had said. They were even nice about it. Told her she could just hand in her work or listen to their classes from the open window in their classrooms. A part of Kara liked that they weren't pressuring her to do anything… but then she had to coldly remind herself that she couldn't trust them.

"You shouldn't be alone Kara," Professor McCoy had tried the other night when she'd slipped into her office to hand in her paper, "the other kids, your friends ... they miss you."

Kara growled at the memory. They didn't. She knew that.

_It had been innocent enough, Kara had thought Kitty and Rogue would have wanted to "hang out." Even after the dining room she - well she had heard what the rest of the mansion was saying. But at least Kitty and Rogue hadn't joined in. That made the feline feel… Better? So everything was fine then. She had spotted them outside and waited till they were close enough and dropped down from the tree she'd been doing her math homework in._

_It was small but she'd seen it. It wasn't the look of surprise on Rogue's face or the sudden intake of breath. It was Kitty ... she… she had flinched._

_"Oh… h-hi Kara." and the feline cocked her head. Why had Kitty flinched?_  
_"Why'd you-"_  
_Then the scent reached her. There was that smell coming from Kitty and a little bit from Rogue too. It was fear. Kara gritted her teeth. She felt something move up her from her stomach to her throat. It wasn't a growl… and it didn't feel nice._

_"Where have you been Kara? Scott's been bugging us nonstop looking for you." Rogue tried but at the mention of Scott the feral took a solid step back, though she seemed to linger a bit longer on Kitty._

_"Around." Kara rumbled back, her always intense gaze seemingly unsure for the first time since Rogue had met her._

_"Do you - are you gonna head back inside? We were gonna go watch a movie or something." Kitty tried but Kara just shook her head. Their words sounded right but everything about the pair seemed off. Past them Kara could see other students staring ... whispering. Evaluating. So everything was not fine then. Ok, she understood now._

_"Kara!" Kitty had yelled after her but she'd already made it to the tree line._

Kara shook her head at the memory before using a strong oak to bound off of and change direction, going deeper into the forest towards the river.

No one missed her. No one to trust. Well maybe Raven ... but the last thing Raven needed was more attention. And it was OK ... She wasn't alone.

The panthress came out of her sprint and slowed as she reached the clearing she'd been racing towards. She didn't have to wait long as a red wolf slowly stepped into the moonlight. It was larger than Kara with red fur and green eyes. It's growl was low as it approached the still pantheress.

Kara kept her eyes fixed on the wolf's. Eventually it came right in front of her ... and gently bunted heads with her.

"Hey Rahne." Kara growled back, a small smile on her muzzle.

* * *

_A Few Weeks Ago..._

"It was probably just some deer." Rogue tossed out distractedly from behind her text book.

"Oh or maybe it was a racoon! I saw one by the garage the other night." Kitty offered excitedly.

"Not deer. Not racoon." Kara rumbled as she kept her gaze locked on the forest. The threesome were in the library working on homework. Well that's what Rogue was doing at least…. Or trying to… Kinda hard with all this talking.

Kara had been outside running the grounds as Warren flew above, the pair using the time before dinner to stretch in their own ways, when Kara had come up short. Her hackles standing on end. Ears flipping towards the woods even before her eyes shifted there.

"Wasn't prey watching." Kara shook her head at the memory. It had been something else … Something dangerous? Predatory? watching her from the woods.

"Maybe it was Rahne." Kitty's tone went from excited to quite as Rogue shot her a look. One that Kara silently observed.

"Rahne is gone Kitty. Let it go." Rogue muttered, a frown on her face while Kara looked from one to the other curiously.

"What's a Rahne?" Kara asked, but Kitty shot another look at Rogue who seemed to be no longer reading despite staring at her textbook. Her eyes didn't follow the lines.

"Someone ask about the Werewolf of Xavier's?" Kara turned to see a new girl, slightly older than the three of them.

"Shut it Tabby." Rogue faux-growled, earning a raised eyebrow from Kara. Kitty meanwhile had slid back into her chair at this new arrival. Her usual relaxed posture suddenly tensed.

Kara fixed her gaze on 'Tabby' ... she had short, wispy blonde hair with bangs and blue eyes. She wore makeup - too much makeup Kara thought - pink lip gloss, and bright blue nail polish with some kind of powder on her eyes that looked like it was peeling off. Kara flicked an ear at what she wore too- a pink scoop tee shirt, faded blue, bell bottom jeans with a leather belt, and black boots. She had multiple rings on both hands and piercings on her upper and lower ears.

She'd seen Tabitha around. She knew that Raven did not like her. She'd called her a 'bully.'

"Oh c'mon Rogue ... just tryin' to share a bit of school history." Tabitha drawled, clearly trying to make fun of Rogue's accent. "Also loving that skunk stripe of yours. Reminds me of home." and Rogue instinctively went to cover that patch of white, Kitty placing an arm over her friend.

"You know she can't help it Tabitha." while Kara bared her teeth. She had been meaning to ask what a bully was, but the feline could put two and two together though her growl seemed to catch Tabby's attention and the older girl suddenly seemed much more interested in taking in the panthress, who simply glared straight back.

Kara thought she smelled funny ... burnt almost.

"So… What's a Rahne you ask?" and Kara looked at Kitty and Rogue hoping one of them would answer for her but Tabby had already drawn her chair closer to the feline who again flicked her tail in annoyance.

"A Werewolf of Xavier's" Kara chuffed back, replying with Tabitha's own answer hoping that would satisfy the older girl and hopefully make her go away but the blonde just laughed.

"Damn right you are. See, I was there when the pick up mission to get her came back…" Tabitha stopped for a second a funny look on her face, as if waiting for some kind of a reaction from the panthress.

"Well?" Kara growled impatiently, she felt like Tabby was trying to play a game with her and this game didn't seem fun.

"Well she looked ,harmless enough. Y'know skinny little runt with a weird accent and a god awful haircut-"

"You don't have to be mean Tabitha!" Rogue shot back, her fists balled.

"Yeah! I mean Rahne grew up in a monastery or something and well you know how weird they get with those kinds of things!" Kitty piped up, seeming to suddenly find the courage to defend her absent friend. An endeavor that backfired spectacularly when Tabitha suddenly leaned over and dropped what look like three simmering pieces of coal on her unfinished homework.

"I'm sorry? Who's telling the story?" and the younger brunette quickly pushed back from the table, eyes on the glowing orbs, while Tabitha just smirked.

"That's what I thought… Anyway…" and she once again scooched closer to Kara who did growl in warning this time but the blonde simply ignored it.

"So it was thunder storming this one night yeah? And like everybody's super on edge, because there were like major bad vibes… and guess what? They were RIGHT." and Tabby grinned as if remembering something truly exciting.

"It was midnight when it happened. Like everyone, and i MEAN everyone woke up because we heard this scream coming from Rahne's room and when we got there… We found her roommate just lying on the floor, totally covered in blood with her guts hanging out and everything!" Tabby had ended her sentence by posing mockingly, her hands held up trying to imitate claws while Kitty and Rogue tried not to roll their eyes.

"Her guts were not hanging out-"

"And on top of the poor girl was this giant, blood-red, WEREWOLF. Like an actual bloodthirsty monster… and monster it was cause it lets out this howl and it jumps out the the window - glass everywhere - and it just disappears into the night. Never... to...be... seen... again…" Tabby ended dramatically, her hands still held up, eyes focused on Kara.

There was a pause, and then another chuff.

"OK." and Kara turned back to her book. That had been such a waste of her time. She could feel Tabby still staring at her, tapping her foot clearly hoping for something more.

"Ugh whatever I thought someone like you would appreciate a story like this. You know one beast to another." the blonde grumbled before sticking her tongue out at the three younger girls, her fingers forming an L on her forehead.

"Later Losers," she drawled out, knocking the chair over as she went.

"Um Tabby what about your-" and Kitty shrieked as the coals went off, like little mini explosions. She had been fast enough to phase the coals off her hands but they did quite a number on her homework… Homework that was now burnt and had to be redone. Kara snarled, baring her teeth at the departing Tabitha who just waved lazily from the doorway. She really didn't like this "bully".

There was a pause before Rogue sighed and scratched her head.

"Ahhh sorry about that Kitty. You can copy off my paper if you want." and Kara did her best to help the brunette put out the little bits of flame still lit at the edge of the table.

"It's not true!" and the other two girls watched a little in concern as the usually cheerful brunette shook with anger from her little outburst. Kitty rubbed her nose before continuing much more controlled this time.

"Rahne she - she was really nice. I mean yea she was shy and maybe a little awkward but - but she wasn't some monster that killed someone! She liked books and funny movies ... and she showed me her powers one time and it was- it was cool. She - she wouldn't hurt anyone! Not on purpose … She was like... so nice." Kitty finished before phasing herself out of the room as now most of the library seemed interested in their conversation.

Kara had ignored Tabby's story at Kitty and Rogue's urging. But on the second night of running the woods Kara had been certain something was tracking her. She could tell it was a predator, but whatever it was, it was smart. It was careful. Kara noting how it kept itself downwind of her scent and out of sight.

Kara wasn't really concerned. She'd faced truer predators than anything these woods had to offer.

This went on for another night until Kara had discovered the clearing. It was easily fifty yards of open space with a few fallen trees creating a defacto border.

Kara growled to herself, she didn't know why but a border keeping everyone out seemed very comforting right now. The feline lowered her head, angry that she had let herself get too comfortable at the mansion. For trusting Logan. She didn't need anyone. She was better off alone. She - she should just keep running and not go back.

Kara released another huff before jumping and clearing the barrier. There was enough light so that even without her enhanced senses she'd be able to see clearly and it was a few miles from the mansion. Not too far that going back - if she wanted to that is - would be a problem and not close enough that anyone could find her and from the scent it didn't seem like anyone else had remotely discovered it yet.

It was perfect.

The next night, Kara made her way straight back to the clearing. She padded around the perimeter a few times before making her way to the center. The pantheress took a seat, cracked her neck ... and carefully pulled out her book.

Professor Storm had been waiting for her the last time she'd slipped in to drop off her homework. Just because she didn't want to sit in class didn't mean she was skipping out ... Kara had been perched in trees just outside the classrooms all week and dropping off any assignments at night. It was the only real reason she hadn't left altogether.

Storm had shook her head a little at that, and Kara could sense her teacher's uneasiness about the whole situation. Ororo even told her she missed her but how proud she was of the progress she was making. That made Kara feel ... something better then empty.

But reading was hard alone. She was slow ... or least slower than everyone else. That was new to Kara and not something she liked. She was used to being the strong one or the fast one and now to be in a situation where she felt like she couldn't rely on herself. But with how everything was now she couldn't let anyone see that she was struggling, because Kara didn't need anyone. She only needed herself. She only had herself.

Though the panthress did give leeway to Professor Storm - even if Ororo wasn't aware of it - and had listened when the weather goddess had made a suggestion that accommodated her insistence of keeping her distance from the mansion.

Taking a deep breath, and glancing around once again to ensure she was alone, Kara started reading out loud. It was about forty minutes in when Kara's ears twitched, her posture tensing. She could sense something watching her and the panthress swallowed a growl of warning. She was curious.

The circling continued until finally a shadow appeared, an outline visible thanks to Kara's night vision, though all she could really tell was that it was big and stood on all fours. Too small to be a bear. A wolf maybe? There was a pause between the two predators, as if both had entered into an unspoken staring contest, both trying to suss the other out. There was a growl, not from Kara, and the shadow darted off.

"Coward." Kara muttered, though she kept her eye on the spot for a few more moments before shrugging and returning to her reading.

* * *

"So you get tired of playing house cat or something?" Kara hadn't even landed from the roof as Jason suddenly appeared in front of her. The panthress however barely gave him a look, decidedly uninterested in striking up any sort of interaction with the loud mouthed teen, and moved to go around him. But he just STAYED THERE, smirking at her like they knew each other or something.

Kara snarled in warning. She had to find other ways to get rid of him and slowly the feline turned to properly face the older mutant.

"Or something." Kara rumbled back ... it was the first time someone at Xavier's had actually caught her off guard. She hadn't noticed Jason before her jump ... not even his scent. Not that she'd admit it of course.

She'd seen Jason around, typically hanging out with Remy outside of Professor Xavier's office for being in some kind of trouble. Most of the Mansion considered him a 'slacker' ... which Kara found out from Kitty meant lazy. But Kara wasn't so sure. Looking at him now... the way he moved ... the way he carried himself ... there was a confidence there that she suspected others took for arrogance. But it wasn't that totally either. She recognized it as someone who knew himself entirely, someone certain he could always get away.

"Oh very mysterious," Jason smirked, "So is there an actual reason you're keeping your distance? You dating a squirrel out there or something?"

"Why do you care?" Kara shot back. This was already their longest conversation and the longest conversation she had with anyone that week, she had hoped to keep it that way but Jason clearly wasn't going to let that happen. He claimed to have reincarnated with all of his memories intact. Something he seemed to enjoy reminding people. It didn't appear that everyone took it that seriously ... but his scent was just so strange. Too old for someone barely older than her.

"Just curious. Our resident emo queen asked if I'd seen you around, and like nothing gets me more worried then when Raven starts *caring about people.* Its scary." Jason was looking at Kara clearly deciding something while Kara was ready to just head to the woods. Jason couldn't stop her so what did it matter if - "you feeling like punching somebody?"

"What?" Kara's ears popped up at that, the usually unreadable feline clearly surprised.

"That's what I thought." Jason's smirk got wider but fell when he took a step closer to Kara who visibly tensed and let out a low growl, but the teen only wagged his finger at her, almost going as far as trying to boop her nose. Touchy touchy" and Kara snarled. Why wouldn't he leave her alone? Why was he such a nuisance? Why couldn't he go bother Remy or Raven or Professor - and that's when she got it.

"Logan." Kara growled again, there it was... the smirk was now completely off of Jason's face.

"Excuse me?" Jason crossed his arms, a not so subtle sign of being annoyed. What she had said clearly caught him off guard for a moment.

"Don't need Logan. Don't need you." Kara bared her teeth as she turned to go but Jason wasn't done.

"Hold up. I never said -" and Jason caught the clawed foot a few inches from his face and then proceeded to effortlessly block the elbow that came spinning behind it and pushed it away. Kara growled again this time more in surprise as she took a few steps back from Jason's block. He could see how she was eyeing him a bit more closely but the smirk was back.

"You sure you don't wanna punch me?" Jason taunted, playing it off like nothing had happened ... like he totally didn't just manage to keep pace with a feral.

Kara genuinely thought about it. However she really didn't want to prolong this anymore ... she'd wasted enough time already. She settled for just another snarl in his direction and with one last resentful look, jumped clear over Jason's head and sprinted towards the safety of the forest, Jason just watching her go until he lost sight near the tree line.

"Shit." he grumbled, before heading back inside to find Remy.

* * *

The next night, it took almost an hour of reading out loud for Kara to finally catch sight of what exactly had been stalking her. It was just as she started to get into a rhythm and when words and things started to come a bit easier that she noticed she was again being watched.

The feline's ears swiveled towards the forest even as her eye's stayed on the page. As she kept reading, she tracked the soft footfalls. A snapped branch. A quiet over the area. Scenting the air she knew it was close.

When Kara's gaze finally lifted she found a wolf standing straight ahead, just outside the clearing, so it was still covered in shadow. Kara however never hesitated in her assessment. The scent ... the eyes ... the way it moved around the clearing. That … That was no wolf. At least no ordinary kind of wolf.

The two eyed each other for a few seconds before it released a soft growl and once again disappeared back into the safety of the trees. Kara kept her focus on the spot before rolling her eyes and putting the book away. It was almost dawn and she wanted to grab something to eat before the rest of the mansion woke up.

It took the rest of the week, but by now, Kara had set up a kind of routine with her stalker. She would head straight to the clearing once the sun began to set, take her book out, and start reading the pages out loud. It was always after about three pages that Kara would see the familiar shadow inching toward her, always wary. Kara however would never turn her attention from her reading … and slowly she sensed the wolf come closer.

Eventually the canine settled down just inside the light of the clearing and would come a few feet closer each time. That night, when the time came, Kara kept her eyes down, and after slipping her book back into her bag... calmly padded out of the clearing. She left a few steaks behind.

Maybe it was because of the food, but the next night, it only took a page for the wolf to step into view.

Kara tried her best to take in its appearance without looking up from her reading. The wolf's red coat was matted, twisted with briars and tangled fur, three claw marks near the right ear which had dried over and badly at that, but its eyes were wide and a clear shade of green, contrasting greatly with the white streak that covered its chest and stomach.

Eventually Kara gestured out at her book and raised an eyebrow in question. The wolf nodded and settled down, her head resting on her forelegs, far enough from the feline so that it could run away if needed but close enough for the tip of their tails to touch.

It was a few hours of more reading, Kara noting how whenever she made a mistake, the wolf would gently bump her tail against hes, as if encouraging her to try again. That was enough for the pantheress.

"Kitty said you loved reading ... Rahne."

The change happened so suddenly it seemed to shock the wolf more than Kara.

One moment there had been a large shaggy wolf, and the next, for the briefest of moments, there had been a red headed, panting, somewhat gangly looking teenage girl bracing herself on the ground, her nails digging into the earth as if afraid to fall over if she didn't. But almost as quickly the wolf was back.

The look on the Rahne's muzzle was clearly one of shock, as she shot up, hackles on edge and took a few steps back from the smirking feline, who instead of calling out rumbled low and kept herself seated.

The wolf growled back and Kara returned in kind. The two going back and forth like that for a while until Rahne finally settled back down. But Kara could tell this revelation had the wolf on edge and with a nod of her head, put down the book and sprinted on all fours into the forest. Rahne wasn't far behind and soon the pair were sprinting through the forest, a stream of growls and howls filling the darkened woods.

The next day, Kara didn't wait till dark and headed straight for the woods after listening to Professor Blake's math class. She didn't make it to the clearing before Rahne intercepted her, and the pair picked up where they'd left it last night. Rahne giving Kara a tour of the larger forest, showing her the best spots on the river, where a herd of deer had been coming to graze, an old abandoned cabin, and ending with an exhaustive, feral game of tag.

It was easily Kara's best day in a long time.

The next night, Kara sprinted into the woods with a smirk firmly in place. But as she came close to the clearing she slowed until she reached it and came to a complete stop, her backpack dropping to the ground. Rahne was in the middle of clearing ... but she wasn't alone.

"Hey kid." The rumble was low but Kara easily heard it.

Logan was back.


	11. Working It Out

**_Thanks for the new follows & favs. Special shoutout to Cheshire, Cew1088, and LoveKita. Cheshire, glad you approve of working Rahne in. She's someone I always feel gets put in the background and wanted to give her some time to shine. And yes ... always good when we get Logan back. Everyone else, thanks for reading and leave a review/comment if you got the time. Love hearing from all of you and I'll do my best to get this next chapter up sooner vs later. _**

* * *

"Welcome back!"

"Good to see you Logan."

"Hey ummm ... so do I actually still have detention if you were gone last week?"

"Hi Wolvie!"

It was still early morning as Logan nodded to the incoming welcomes as he headed from the garage into Xaviers. Fall was well underway now and that meant the school was filled with students, X-Men, and a few mutants looking for refuge or simply passing through. He'd been gone almost two weeks.

Back in his room, Logan tossed his duffel by the bed and headed to the shower. He mostly wanted to just grab a case of beer and let the whole place get over him being back. Lay low for a couple days before getting back to classes and missions. But that wasn't gonna happen which earned a low growl of resignation before he tossed on a fresh pair of jeans and flannel. He took the beer to go.

"Logan, welcome back." Xavier put down the book he'd been reading and looked up with a smile as the resident feral came into his office. Xavier however didn't have the same smile of welcome as the rest of mansion. He already knew what was on Logan's mind but that didn't stop the feral from beating him to the one question he had.

"What the hell happened Chuck?"

Xavier seemed to steady himself as instead of answering passed Logan the tablet ready on his desk. Logan didn't say a word, just taking a seat as he watched and then rewatched the Danger Room footage.

"Logan I promise you no one meant Kara any harm. Scott was simply overeager and has been spoken to." Xavier started but Logan wasn't having it.

"Spoken to huh?" Logan growled low as he slowed the video down, pausing it every so often and replaying certain parts.

"Yes and we all have Kara's best interests at heart."

"Lemme guess ... kid's ghosted." Logan kept his eyes on the screen, his brow lowering with each replay.

"She hasn't drifted too far but ... yes, she's withdrawn considerably since then." Xavier replied, clearly trying to read Logan without actually reading him.

"You're all damn fools." Logan tossed the tablet onto the desk, "Don't tell me ... you think she lost control?" Xavier nodded at Logan's assessment and Logan just scoffed as he got out of the chair.

"That wasn't a lack of control. That was - c'mon Chuck shooting a target that distance while on the move and taking down someone almost twice her size? That look like a lack of control to you?" Logan was pacing at this point.

"What about the end?" Xavier didn't have to explain what he was referring to.

"That's somethin' I'll figure out with her." Logan knew what had happened with Kara, not like she was the first feral he'd seen get pushed past the edge, but the why it had happened ... that was something he needed answer for.

"So what does it mean?" Xavier continued, not wanting to push Logan so soon.

"It means the kid's been trained. And you only get trained like that for one thing." Logan shook his head, Widow's story replaying. There was just no way ... it had been years ago.

"Did you find any answers while you were away?" Xavier probed, getting Logan to pause his pacing long enough to shoot him a look and shake his head.

"I met with Magneto while you were gone. He asked for Kara." Now that got Logan to stop pacing altogether.

"Asked?" Logan's tone said it all. Magneto wasn't one to just 'ask' about anything.

"Magneto would never attack the school." Xavier's tone was certain but Logan snorted at the concept of trusting Magneto to not do anything.

"Just add him to the list then." Logan growled and taking the tablet headed for the door.

"What are you going to do Logan?" Xavier's tone the same though there was a slight edge there.

"I'm gonna find out how bad you all messed this up."

* * *

"Got a minute?" Logan's question was obviously directed at Raven but it took her actually turning around to make sure there was no one behind her to confirm that he was indeed talking to her. Raven sighed, she had done her best to avoid the surly feral since he showed back up at Xavier's but it looked like her luck had run out and she gave him a resigned look.

"Yea ... sure." Raven had been heading back from breakfast when Logan had intercepted her and she followed him back to his office, the smell of cigars making it clear which was his.

"So what happened with our girl?" Logan dropped into one of the leather chairs that took up a corner of his office, never having bothered or seen the purpose of putting in a proper desk ... or any kind of shelf beyond a single bookcase for that matter. Logan's office was an assortment of piles of books and papers unlike most of the other teachers and the goth had to cautiously levitate a stack of papers and beer bottles out of her way so she could take a seat on the edge of the other sole chair in Logan's office.

"Our girl?" Raven's tone was neutral and controlled as ever but Logan caught that hint of hardness to it and he watched her a little closer.

"Yea. Couldn't help but notice she ain't around. And I'm guessing that's been happenin' a lot lately." his tone making it clear that he wasn't guessing.

"Guess so." She replied cooly but Logan could scent the genuine worry and anxiety wafting off the empath. It was why he'd gone searching for her first. Also judging by her attitude towards him, Logan could piece together that the purple haired teen was taking his recent disappearance quite personally. Which indicated to him it was most probably because Kara felt that way. Great.

"Look kid," and Logan leaned forward so he was eye level with the girl, "I appreciate the loyalty. But you got anythin' you wanna share that's gonna help Kara ... you tell me. I'm trying to make this right." and he could see Raven's cool facade falter a bit. Logan had considered Kara a good fit with Raven, the kid not being easily spooked by a few shadows or whispers, and the older girl was clearly more sensitive to the feline's needs then most and it looked like he'd been right. The two were good for one another and he listened closely as Raven finally seemed to relent a bit.

"If you're asking if I've seen her around then no. I mean I know she's sneaking into our room sometimes but beyond that ... she's been gone." Raven muttered and Logan furrowed his brow.

"She ever mention anythin' that might help me get a handle on what the hells been goin' on around here?" and Raven bit her lip, really looking at the feral for the first time as if trying to suss out his intentions. Logan smirked at her.

"Again, appreciate the loyalty but don't have time for games kid. I'm going to need everythin you know to help her. We want the same thing." and he caught how her shoulders untensed slightly, and how she seemed to think about what he said for a moment before slowly coming out of that guarded posture.

"She ..." and Raven paused wondering if whatever she said was going to make any sense. Honestly even in her head it didn't, but the empath decided to press on anyway.

"Wherever she came from? I think she's afraid of it following her here." Raven confessed, earning a nod from Logan in understanding. Where exactly Kara had come from was one of the questions he'd never gotten an answer to.

"Aint gonna happen kid." and he ignored the purple haired teens annoyed stare as he gave her a reassuring nod.

"You get to class. I'll deal with this." Raven took that as a dismissal and quickly gathered her bag and left Logan alone in his office. Taking a moment to consider all of what Raven had told him, Logan pulled out the tablet he'd taken from Xavier and replayed a clip he'd saved from the danger room. The moment Kara had gone feral.

"Following her here huh..." Logan rumbled to himself, his brow furrowing as he considered what he knew and far more importantly what he didn't.

* * *

"Thought I told you two idiots to check in on her." Logan's rumble caught Remy and Jason off guard, the two hurriedly flicking away the joints they'd just been definitely not smoking instead of y'know... being in class. Logan hadn't even bothered looking for them there and instead had followed the smell of energy drinks, crawfish, pizza, and weed and predictably found the pair enjoying the late fall morning outside near the basketball court.

"We did." Remy defended before coughing wildly while Jason tactfully decided to release his breath ... along with a plume of smoke. He knew the game was up the moment Logan appeared, didn't mean he acted sorry about it though, crossing his arms defiantly, his smirk still in place.

"Oh yea, then where the hell is she?" Logan tossed back, his usually short patience for the pair dangerously used up.

"In there." Jason nodded his head towards the forest casually. Logan eyed the large expanse of land, the sound of his jaws grinding audible even to the non-ferals.

"You really call that watchin' out for her?" Logan rumbled, clearly not amused but Jason just shrugged.

"Don't get all snarly, she comes back when she thinks no one is looking OK? So technically, she hasn't 'run off'. I mean, what did you want us to do ... put a collar on her and teach her to sit? Or maybe ambush her with catnip?" Jason defended, earning a scowl from Logan, which made the teen lose his brazenness for a second. "Hey ... I even offered to let her hit me but she preferred to play outdoors."

"Tempting offer." Logan growled as he eyed the two teenagers before sighing audibly. Honestly, what did he expect? It wasn't like Jason or Remy had the power to force Kara to do anything... or would have in the first place... but that didn't mean he was happy they'd slipped up in not stepping in before the school had chased the kid off.

"You saw the evaluation?" Remy suddenly cut in, his usually casual tone gone while Jason elbowed his friend with a look. He'd heard what had happened from Remy more than once but he didn't quite believe it. That is until Kara had almost taken his head off. Not that it was a big deal or anything, dying and being reincarnated hundreds of times meant occurrences like these really weren't that big of a deal so honestly he couldn't see why everyone in the school was so worked up about it. Speaking of everyone...

"Sounds like the whole damn school did." Logan rumbled out, mostly to himself.

"And?" Remy asked, clearly expecting some insights from Logan.

"And it's none of yer damn business." Logan growled, now regretting ever involving these two.

"Logan she - is that why you wanted us to keep tabs on the chatte? You think she may be dangero -" but Logan's growl cut Remy short.

"Watch your mouth swamp rat. I wanted you two to keep the rest of the school from gangin' up on Kara while I was gone but you two messed that up. Lesson learned." Logan growled, the two taking a small step back as Logan stepped forward.

"Hey hey - it wasn't our fault the entire school got spooked. Why don't you go beat up Scott instead of blamin us? He's the one who made her do the evaluation just to brown nose his way into the professor's good books" Jason defended, but Logan's scowl just deepened.

"Don't worry bout Scooter. You two idiots just get to class." the feral tossed out as he turned his back on the pair of teenager who pointedly didn't look at each other as they shuffled their way inside.

* * *

"You shouldn't have left Logan." Ororo's tone was serious as Logan eyed the last students leaving the storm goddess' class room.

"Wasn't gonna find what I needed sittin' on my ass Ro." Logan rumbled, crossing his arms as Ororo cleared off her lesson from the board.

"You still shouldn't have left her alone." Ororo finally turned to face Logan fists balanced on her hips, clearly meaning business.

"Didn' think I did." Logan gestured at the school around them but Ororo just gave the feral a look.

"You know very well what I mean Logan. Kara was in a fragile state when you brought her here and at the earliest moments of her feeling safe ... you left! The very one who brought her here in the first place suddenly disappears... How do you THINK that would make her feel." Ororo accused, doing her own version of a rumble, except hers was emphasised by an actually roll of thunder, somewhere in the distance ... and while that would have scared most, Logan held his ground.

"I didn' leave for nothin' Ro. I needed some answers." he pushed back gently.

"And she needed you Logan." Ororo's response, her gaze, her tone... It finally got the feral to rumble more to himself then to her, but a sniff got a uncharacteristic smirk to suddenly appear on his usually wizened face and before Ororo could raise a very well arched brow as to why, Scott came bursting through the door.

"What is THIS?!" Scott practically demanded holding up a sheet of paper, his face almost as red as his visor.

"We're not done." Ororo warned, shooting one last look at Logan and then at the young Cyclops before wisely deciding that this wasn't something she needed to bother herself with and gracefully left the room. Logan just leaned comfortably against the now vacant desk seemingly more in thought then noticing the still seething Scott.

"I said WHAT IS THIS?"

"Not sure what you're talkin' bout Scooter. But I got better things to do then listen to you whine." Logan pushed off the desk to leave but Scott didn't budge... bravely or stupidly depending on who you asked, blocking the shorter feral. Logan raised an amused eyebrow.

"I know it was you Logan. No one else will say anything... but I know it was you." Scott accused but Logan just get the same smirk in place.

"And what do you think I did?" Logan's tone was still relaxed as he clearly enjoyed playing with Scott for the moment. The teenager seemed to catch himself, his characteristic diplomacy returning for just that second.

"Last night... I was scheduled to train with the X-Men in the morning and today I checked my schedule and it shows me training in the afternoon!" Scott's tone made it seem obvious but Logan played it out.

"What's wrong with that? Sounds like you could use the sleep." Logan replied but Scott looked like he was almost ready to burst, that well known diplomacy clearly forgotten

"IT's- its's with the junior team!" the teen stuttered out. : Wh - why would I need to run with the JUNIOR team? I'm an X-man!" Scott practically shouted for the mansion to hear but Logan's smirk had turned almost dangerous, and he took a step closer to Scott. If he was being honest, Scott had hoped, no planned actually... to speak to Logan right when he'd gotten back. Explain himself for what had happened with Kara. He'd expected some kind of dress down ... prepared himself for some form of detention or community service. But this ... this was almost unbearable.

"You sure bout that Slim? You really want to head down to the Danger Room and run with me? Cause I ain' sure that's the best idea right now. If it was me ... I'd thank whoever did ya the favor..." and that finally seemed to get through to the teenager, the former X man taking a step back.  
"Great, now get outta my face." Logan finished with a growl before storming past Scott, his shoulder pushing the taller mutant out of his way. Logan didn't say anything to the dozen or so students who seemed to stunned at what they'd just heard standing in the hallway.

Logan did his best not to smirk till he was on his way outside. Chuck had talked him into the demotion as opposed to locking him in the Danger Room and running the same circuit as Kara till he dropped. But that still left the one remaining mutant he hadn't spoken to yet ... Kara.

Logan scanned the tree line. He knew he'd find her but the question was where to start first. The river made some sense in the northwest but that didn't -

"Hey Logan?" a small voice broke Logan out of his thoughts and looking down he saw Kitty standing slightly behind him, her hands across her chest from the late early November afternoon wind. Her usually perky attitude clearly weighed down by something... Logan grumbled a little before holding out an arm.

"Hey Kitten. What ya doin' out here?" and Kitty slowly took her place next to him, the pair just observing the view from the deck.

"It's my fault." Kitty whispered out, Logan looking down surprised to see Kitty apparatnly on the verge of tears.

"What you talkin' bout kid?" Logan kneeled down so that he could see Kitty properly but she just shook her head and kept her gaze on the woods.

"I - it's my fault Kara's gone. I never - I didn't mean it." Kitty managed out, her breaths coming out in little gasps as the fought not to cry in front of Logan.

"Nothin's your fault Kitten. If anythin' this is my fault. You got nothin' to blame yourself for." Logan rumbled softly but Kitty tried pushing away from Logan who held soft but firmly.

"I never shoulda let those kids say that stuff about her! And - and ... Logan I know she knows. But I didn't mean it! You gotta tell her that I was stupid and I didn' mean it." Kitty got out as the tears came steady now.

"What didn' you mean darlin?" Logan soothed, his voice steady as he kept trying to catch Kitty's gaze.

"To - to be scared of her," Logan's brow went up as some things fell into place, "and now she's gone. Just - just like Rahne." Kitty's voice barely a whisper now as she looked back at the woods. Logan worked his jaw as he tried to find the right thing to say to his littlest girl.

"She ain' gone Kitten," Logan gently turned Kitty back to look back at him, "and even if she was? We'd go get her back."

"So ... you're gonna get her back?" Kitty whispered out with a small smile. She knew Logan could make things better.

"Get who back?" Kitty jumped a little as Jubilee came bounding out of the Mansion with the smack of bubblegum. She'd seen Logan through the kitchen doors and had assumed if Kitty was talking to him that meant he was free to finally catch up. But seeing Kitty quickly trying to wipe her eyes the spunky teen slowed a bit.

"Nothin' you need to worry bout Jubes. You mind takin' Kitty back inside?" Logan's tone was enough for Jubilee though she frowned at being pushed back again from spending time with Logan.

"So long as you promise we get to hang later Wolvie." Jubilee shot a finger at Logan as she took Kitty by elbow to lead her back inside but the little brunett dug her heels in and looked back up at Logan.

"You promise you'll get her back? You'll tell her?" Kitty's big hazel eye's looking straight at him.

"I got it Kitten. Get inside." Logan nodded towards the door and with a nod of her own and a roll of the eyes from Jubes, the pair headed inside. Logan turned back towards the woods and with a deep breath, headed towards the treeline.

* * *

"Hey kid." Logan rumbled as he briefly bunted Rahne's forhead before the teenage wolf gave the two ferals a quick look and loped out of the clearing. Logan watched her go before getting up from his crouch and turning to face the still silent pantheress.

"See you've met Rahne," Logan nodded towards the woods where the teen had slipped away, "she was catchin' me up. Told me you actually saw her ... that hasn' happened for a while."

"Why you back?" Kara's rumble was as soft as ever but her stance was guarded ... defensive. Logan couldn't help but remember Kara's reaction the first time she saw him back in the cave.

"I'm back cause this is my home. Yours too last I checked." Logan's tone wasn't exactly comforting, his growl matching the feline's own as he spoke.

"You left." Kara's eyes narrowed as she rubbed her shoulder.

"Had to check on some things," Logan replied but as he took a step closer Kara took a measured one back. He really didn't want to have to chase her down.

"You. Left." Kara really didn't care why Logan had disappeared. He'd left her alone and bad things happened. He'd promised no more bad things would happen.

"And I'm back. Listen Salem ... I get some things went down while I was gone. But you're tougher than a couple of idiots talkin' behind your back. You're a good kid and -"

"Don't say that." Kara cut in with a growl, her hackles slowly raising as Logan raised an eyebrow.

"Say what?" Logan was truly confused now.

"Not good." Kara seemed determined to look anywhere but at Logan but he wasn't having it. Time for secrets was over.

"Why hell would you say that? Don't matter what you mighta done before. Doesn't matter where you came from. I don't care. You're a good kid and you deserve to be here." Logan tried again but when he took a step closer Kara let out a true growl as she flexed her claws, one pair directly into her shoulder.

"Not good." Kara growled but Logan had seen enough.

"Stop that shit right now!" Logan wasn't about to let Kara hurt herself but as he moved forwards the younger feral roared and charged head on.

Logan was careful to keep his claws sheathed but the pantheress clearly didn't feel the same way as she did her best to slice into Wolverine. The two ferals were a clash of growls and snarls, Logan trying to not hurt Kara while at the same time not let her disembowel him. The feline managed to slip under Logan's guard and draw blood but it gave the larger feral the opportunity he needed and grabbing her wrist wrapped Kara around so that her back was to his chest.

"Settle down!" Logan growled but Kara was close to tipping over the edge, using her feet ... her tail ... her fangs ... anything to hurt. Make Logan understand. The school knew. Everyone knew.

"Not good!" Kara roared back, but Logan just squeezed tighter.

"Kara enough!" Logan tried but Kara just took a chunk out of Logan's arm in response, earning a true roar from Wolverine as he flung Kara away. The feline landed on all fours, braced for a moment, and flung herself back at Logan who saw her coming and hipped tossed her straight into one of downed trees in the clearing with a crack. But Kara was back up in a moment, shaking her head clear as she snarled and charged back.

The two kept at it, Kara charging and Logan doing his best to deflect and defend, for close to thirty minutes before either feral began to tire. But eventually, the feline began to slow and with yet another toss from Logan, Kara finally stilled, her chest heaving as she glared at the now bleeding but still standing Logan from one knee.

"I shouldn' have left." Logan's growl was gone, hands at his sides as he looked down at the recovering pantheress. Really looked at her. Kara saw the sympathy in Logan's eye and bared her teeth at it. She hated it.

"But you did," Kara growled as she stayed on her haunches, "because of me."

"Is that - you think I left because of you?" The truth was so simple it actually struck Logan like a blow to the brain. Despite everything he had forgotten just how young the kid was. How it must have looked to her.

"Salem," Logan crouched down so he was even with her, "I didn' leave cause of you. But I shouldn't have just disappeared on ya." Logan explained, Kara eyeing him suspiciously. She didn't smell a lie ... but that didn't mean he was telling the truth.

"But you bein' pissed at me doesn' mean you shoulda ran off. Doesn't matter how stupid kids can be." Logan pushed, Kara crossing her arms over her knees as she gave a very Raven like roll of the eyes.

"Better here. No one scared of me outside." Kara rumbled, the anger and tension she'd been building up for the last few weeks having finally found an outlet left the feline feeling a bit better but drained, as Logan just chuckled right back and shook his head.

"You gotta let that kinda stuff go Salem. You think I don' know how many people are scared of me when I walk into room? The looks?" Kara glanced up at Logan as he continued, "you just shrug it off. Be yourself and don' hold back for anyone. Your real friends will step up. Even if it takes 'em a minute." Logan finished, letting Kara sit with what he said for a bit in silence. He smirked as Rahne made her return and padded over to Kara who leaned against her.

"You ready to head back?" Logan rumbled gently, Kara's amber eyes locking onto his for a moment before Rahne bumped her with a nod. Kara smirked at Rahne's rumble and ran her claws through the teen wolf's rust colored fur.

"I will ... later." Kara rumbled back, earning a nod from Logan as he growled a goodnight to his two fuzziest girls. The pair watched his disappear into the forest before Kara felt the rest of the tension leave her and she fell back with a sigh mixed growl.

She was still mad at Logan. But felt better knowing he was back. She considered feeling bad about attacking him but shrugged it off. He didn't seem surprised by it so why linger on it? But what Logan had said about her friends did linger. The question Kara had was ... what to do about it?


	12. Watch and Learn

**_I could apologize for the delay or just let you get on with the story ... right? Cheshire, as always thanks for reviews and yea I'm a pretty big fan of Kara myself. Now let's get on with it._**

* * *

"So you think Logan found her?" Kitty spoke quietly to Rogue as the assembled group ate their breakfast near the large windows that looked out over the grounds. Most of the group was busy trying to go over Dr. McCoy's biology test coming up in a few hours, but Kitty had been shooting looks over her shoulder out the window all morning.

"If Professor Logan said he'd take care of it I bet he already did. I mean come on ... you really think Kara can hide from Wolverine?" Rogue encouraged, earning a smile from Kitty.

"What about Kara?" Mako cut in, the group suddenly looking at Rogue and Kitty who shared a brief look between each other before just staring back.

"Did you hear something?" Bolin followed up, his eagerness obvious.

"N - no. I was just sayin' that Logan's been askin' around bout her." Rogue explained.

"You really think she ran off?" Warren asked, voicing a popular theory that had divided the group.

"I know she didn't. Raven said so," Kitty shot back before anyone else could, "not that you were any help." the little brunette finished, Warren scoffing but quickly looking away.

"No way." Jubilee's jaw seemed to stop working, sitting right across from Kitty she assumed she was talking to her.

"Yes way. I'm telling you she hasn't gone. She'll be back." Kitty pushed.

"I believe you." Jubilee replied with a smile as she stood up, the rest of her side of the table doing the same with a mix of faces as Kitty, Rogue, and Bolin looked at them confused before quickly turning around and Kitty breaking into a wide smile which quickly dropped into a matching look to everyone else: shock.

It was Kara. That's what first hit Kitty ... that and relief. It was the first time she'd seen her in what felt like forever. It was a little hard to make her out in the early November light but who else would it be with a tail coming out of the trees?

"It's her!" Bolin pointed as the whole group moved to stand at the window, some of the other kids noticing the commotion. But no one else spoke as Kara came into better view. It had looked like she'd been carrying something ... but as she cleared the tree line just what she was carrying - more like dragging - came into focus.

"Is - what is that?" Ilyana asked what they were all wondering but suddenly it became obvious.

Kara was heading back towards Xavier but it wasn't empty handed. She'd brought down the six-point buck a little under a mile from the mansion. The idea had only occurred to her a few hours after Logan had left when the scent had hit her.

Kara hunted. It was what she was good at. What came natural.

Kara huffed as she shifted the bucks legs over her shoulder and turned towards Logan who was just finishing his own meditations. The group watched from afar as Kara headed towards him but heard the bark of laughter as Logan caught sight of what the feline was bringing him. The two talked briefly, Logan nodding about something as Kara left him with the buck and she headed towards the mansion.

It took a few seconds but once the group - and it looked like most of the students at breakfast - realized exactly where the dark feral was headed they all quickly tried getting back to their seats and acting like nothing had happened as Kara hit the deck.

Kitty however couldn't quite look away and saw Kara pause for just a moment at the door, seeming to steady herself as she took a breath, and quietly slipped into kitchen.

Without saying anything, the feline washed her hands, went to the island and grabbed some food, and without looking directly at anyone took the empty seat near the end of their table and started eating.

The entire kitchen seemed to be just watching the feline eat, waiting for ... something else to happen. But after a couple seconds of Kara looked up from her plate, gave the assembled group a brief look, and shrugged.

"So what did Dr. McCoy say about the lifecycle of cells again?" Mako's tone was the same stressed focus as before and soon the entire table resumed their conversation and after a couple more beats the rest of the students in the kitchen followed suit. Though a few mentions of 'feral' and 'panther' could clearly be heard ... but that didn't seem to register with Kara.

"Good to have you back." Kitty whispered without really looking over at Kara, but she knew the feline would hear her, and a small flick of her tail was enough for Kitty to smile and dive back in to their conversation.

* * *

"Not going?"

Kurt let out a shout of surprise as his tail was the only thing that kept him from falling to the ground as it gripped the chandelier he'd been sulking on so tightly that it hurt.

"K-Kara? Vat do you want?" Kurt had his hand over his chest as his heart worked to get back to normal as he turned back to the watching feline. He'd been up here for almost an hour, glowering at the groups of mutants heading out of Xavier's for whatever they wanted on the chilly November weekend afternoon.

"Nothing." Kara rumbled back. She'd only started spending her time back in classes and the mansion a few days ago and had taken to spending her time in the rafters that filled the vaulted ceilings of Xavier's. She'd promised Logan that she would stick around ... give her friends a chance. But suddenly being back indoors after the spending so much time in the woods made everything very ... loud. And close. I mean she was close enough if she could see and hear everyone ... that counted right?

"Nichts." Kurt grumbled right back, earning a raised brow from Kara who laid down above the fuzzy teleporter, her tail dangling just above his head. He grinned begrudgingly back at her before crouching back down himself, though his tail floated high enough to dangle in Kara's vision. Kara chuffed in amusement.

The pair sat like that in silence though Kurt kept putting his tail closer to Kara until eventually she took a swipe at it. It didn't take long before Kurt let out a playful growl as he suddenly teleported to get back at her and soon the two found themselves chasing after the other across the rafters, no one down below even noticing the silent game.

Kara grinned, it was nice to finally have someone who could keep up with her. Kurt's porting occasionally even almost getting the better of her. Almost.

The feline paused however when she noticed the elf had stopped chasing her and had suddenly gone quiet again… just as they had made it back to the chandelier he had originally been swinging on. The feline huffed, her ears twitching as she observed how Kurt looked longingly at Jubilee and Kitty as the pair went racing down the hallway and outside.

"Why not go?" Kara nodded her head towards them. Her hearing picking up Kitty saying something about wanting to hitch a ride to watch a movie, or go downtown, or ... Kara shook her head. Feral hearing or not she just couldn't keep up with that girl when she talked that fast.

"Can't." Kurt mumbled, and Kara noted how his ears lowered a hair while he hugged his knees a little tighter, his tail coming to a stand still

"Why?" Kara's soft rumble pressed.

He seemed to appreciate that… and Kara noticed how Kurt seemed to tense over what he said next. Like he was afraid what he was going to say would affect her.

"The vorld doesn't like the fuzzy guy." Kurt chuckled, his usual smile in place but Kara noted that it was different ... could smile's be sad? She'd have to ask Raven.

There was some more silence while Kara waited for him to start talking again. Honestly Kara hadn't been aware that Kurt could be quite for this long.

Kurt meanwhile tried to decide what to do with this typical intense stare focused on him for once. It was so hard to read Kara… Was she annoyed? Was this too much? Did she even understand? Most of the group thought Kara was ... well not dumb or anything. She just ... didn't really seem to always get or care about what was going on in the group. If she was quiet it meant that he should keep talking… right ?

"Professor Xavier tried asking for an induca…"

"Indu-ca?" Kara's tone made it clear she needed a bit more of an explanation, earning another sigh from Kurt.

"Ja… it makes you look…" and the elf paused. "It makes you look normal. Like everyone else. But ... Professor Xavier couldn't get an exception. The govament outlawed induca's for mutants after there vas attacks. He told me it vas safer if I just… stayed here for now." Kurt explained, his feeling on the matter obvious as he watched as Rogue and Bolin rounded the corner excitedly. Very unhelpfully yelling something about wanting to tag along for the movie with some older kids.

"You're trapped." Kara didn't mean it as a question. But Kurt nodded his head anyway.

"Ja ... though zat not vat bugs me," Kurt replied, his tail now curled around his knees as he fumbled with his fingers for a bit. "I know it's selfish but if ve were al stuck together I'd be OK. I think. It's - It's being left out. It's not fair."

Kara kept her eyes on Kurt for a beat longer as he continued to watch the front door. Kara didn't feel bad like Kurt did. She liked her alone time. Her distance. The thought of putting on an 'induca' to look normal didn't sound very interesting but it occurred to her that being 'left out' did sound ... familiar.

"Come on." and Kara bumped Kurt's tail with her own before gracefully leaping to the adjacent rafter, claws digging into the wood as she stretched.

"Vere?" Kurt's tone a mix of caution and curiosity. This was the most alone time he'd ever had with the elusive and quite feral.

"Outside. Gym. Wherever is better than here." Kara said with a rumble and giving Kurt a nod she padded away on the beam. Kurt looked back to the groups leaving one more time and with a familiar smirk leaped up to the beam and quickly followed.

"Vat are your thoughts on pirates?" He called out as the pair headed outside.

Kara blinked.

"Pirates?"...

* * *

Kara let out a rumble that sounded more like a sigh as she shrugged her way into her bedroom.

Spending all that time alone and in the woods had been great. Maybe a little too great. All this time being back inside and around everyone was ok ... even at a distance. Like being around a fire and still feeling warm even if you weren't close. But it was still waring for the solitary feral.

Luckily Kara had Raven for a roommate.

The purple-haired empath nodded at Kara's appearance, glancing up only momentarily from her meditation a few inches above the ground before closing her eyes.

Kara shucked off her clothes so she was only in her underware and jumped across the room onto her bed. She didn't even have to look, instead just reaching out a hand as she caught the levitating headphones already connected to the record player.

The pantheress let out a more relaxed rumble as the music filled her head, the two roommates meeting eyes one more time with a mutual smirk, as they both enjoyed each others company in the silent room.

* * *

"You sure you don't wanna come Warren?" Illyana asked gently, the rest of the group already walking away with an array of smirks, shaking heads, or rolling eyes.

"Can't. I have to get ready." Warren huffed as he worked to close his once again repacked suitcase. It was his third time doing it since last night.

"You don't think that maybe -" Illyana started but Warren cut her off with a glare.

"I don't have time for this!" the preteen snapped, his angelic features contorted for a second before he quickly checked the mirror, hastily combing his tousled blonde locks back in place and straightening his coat, ensuring nothing looked out of the ordinary .

"The car will be here soon." Warren said determinedly, his tone cold before checking his cell phone. If anyone had to guess, it'd look like Warren was reading an incoming text, but Illyana knew her boyfriend better. His eyes weren't following the lines and there was that line between his eyebrows when he was stressed. Warren, seemingly noticing her skepticism, hurriedly chucked the phone next to his bed before getting back to his suitcase.

"See, his meeting was delayed, he'll be here in fifteen."

Illyana looked like she wanted to say something but just shook her head and followed the rest of the group downstairs.

Warren meanwhile didn't allow himself to watch her go, instead making quite a show of picking up his suitcase and wheeling it past the noisy common rooms as dignified as he could to the front porch of Xaivier's.

"He's coming." he muttered to himself shifting on his feet to fight off the cold as best as he could, all the while eagerly looking out into the night.

Kara had just come back from her evening hunt, November had rolled around which meant the lake had just started to freeze over and the panthress knew she only had a small time window left to hunt before the herds migrated. But just as she was scaling a tree to return to her room, something weird caught her attention. Warren ... Alone ... Muttering about something ...

"Who's coming?" and Warren actually left the ground by a few feet as he turned to find Kara suddenly leaping over the stone railing to land a few stairs above him.

"Oh, it's you…" the older boy sneered before talking in that weird puffy way Kara disliked. Kitty had called it "snobby".

"Well if you must know, it's my father, and I'm supposed to be joining him in Switzerland for Thanksgiving and maybe even winter break if he gets enough time." Warren's words practically spilled out, though Kara had heard some version of the same story over a dozen times the last few weeks. Even from the woods.

"Where is he?" Kara looked around, her ears swiveling but Warren scoffed at the feral's naivety.

"He's not here yet. I mean he'll probably send a car to take me to the airfield but it's the same thing." Warren added, his tone clearly expecting Kara to be impressed but instead having to settle for a shrug.

"OK." Kara said simply before laying down on the stone, clearly unbothered by the cold, and Warren, unsure of what else to do, resumed his pacing.

There was some silence...

"You don't have to stay you know. I'll be gone soon." Warren shot over his shoulder trying to play off that twenty minutes had totally not just gone by. But Kara didn't seem to hear him... the pantheress had pulled a notebook out of someplace and was doodling. Her attention clearly not on the boy next to her.

"Whatever." Warren muttered.

They waited around the porch a little longer but now the sky had darkened considerably.

"He is coming." Warren whispered to himself but easily loud enough for a feral.

"No." and Warren whipped around to glare at Kara, her eyes still on her pad. Colossus had bugged her for something 'new' for art class and she decided a set of stairs counted.

"Y - you don't know anything." Warren spat out, his fists balled as he approached her. The boy was agitated, cold and clearly looking for someone to yell at… That much Kara could tell.

"No one is coming. Not few miles." she answered calmly, her head cocked slightly as Warren noticed her ears swivel again towards what he thought was the highway.

"You-" and Kara turned to look him in the eye. Her stare unwavering.

"No one is coming."

There was a pause, followed by the dull thump of Warren kicking over his suitcase. The two of them just stewing in silence for awhile. Kara felt as though she should leave but ... well it wasn't like she had anything else to do.

"You can really know that?" Warren asked as he finally stopped pacing, impressed despite himself. But Kara just shrugged. Warren looked back towards the main gate and the road beyond until he gave his head a violent shake.

"He promised." Warren managed out, doing his best to stay angry. His dad's secretary had told him he'd be going. That this wouldn't happen again. I mean - she'd never actually 'promised' but - she'd told him it 'would work out.' What else could that have meant? "AGH!" and Warren threw his coat off in frustration before turning to face Kara.

"What are you even doing out here? What did - did the rest of the group want you tell them how _stupid_ I was? How I was just lying all over again?!" Warren accused, his tone flaring up again.

"I like the view." Kara nodded towards the front of the Mansion, Warren looking around as if noticing it all for the first time. The idea that maybe Kara wasn't there for him occurring to him.

"Oh…"

Kara cocked her head, finally noticing what he was wearing and it caught her interest.

"Hurt?" Warren looked at her confused.

"Are you hurt?" she tried again before pointing at the leather harness across his chest. The ones that were keeping his wings strapped to his back and hidden from view.

"Oh this…" and Warren shrugged uncomfortably, "I'm fine. It's just itchy ... and tight. But its OK."

"Lying." and Warren flinched at Kara's tone, her eyes again fixed onto him.

There was a sigh.

"I… I just wanted to make a good impression for my dad that's all. He hates looking at them-" and Warren was cut off by the panthress nimbly leaping over him. Landing gracefully on the trail leading to the woods.

"Cold. Run now." Kara rumbled, Warren assuming that as suddenly as the feral had appeared she'd lost interest, "Wind's nice." she said simply before darting off.

Warren watched her go for a while, wondering what the hell she meant and for a second forgetting about why he was outside in the first place, but as she neared the trees he could swear she stopped to look back at him ... what was she waiting for?

"Oh." Casting one more glance at the main gates… the blonde shook his head, giving his overturned suitcase one last look, before ripping off his harness and leaping off the porch to join the panthress.


	13. Trained For What?

**_Still with me? Alright good to know. Thanks to all the new favorites and follows. Special shout out to Cheshire for the review and yea I thought it was good to take a minute and show how Kara views the rest of Xavier's and a bit of how they view her. She's coming along right? Enjoy the next (extra long) chapter, review, and rest assured plenty more to come._**

* * *

Kara let out a soft rumble as the wind ruffled her fur, the sky still mostly dark this early on a fall Saturday. Even she knew it was beginning to get cold, though her breakfast companion didn't seem to mind.

The two sat in silence on the huge deck that lay just outside the kitchen and dining room in the rear of the mansion. Both of them preferred the quite outside of a few rumbles. It was why Kara had suggested they meet for breakfast. Less noise. Less people.

Two pairs of ears swiveled towards the kitchen and Kara glanced over her shoulder as she knew who was coming but the idea of Kitty and Rogue being up this early on a weekend ... well the why didn't matter that much anyway.

"Morning. Two days?" Kara's question got a rumble in return and after a quick bump of foreheads Kara watched her breakfast mate brace for a moment before leaping clear of the deck and begin sprinting towards the forest.

"Kara! There you are I was -" Kitty had popped her head out the sliding door but had frozen mid-sentence as Kara was already heading towards her her eyes clearly set on the spot across from where Kara had just been sitting, "was that - did you ..." Kitty stuttered, for once too excited and confused to actually speak.

"Rahne says hi." Kara smirked, her tail flicking behind her, as Kitty let out a few more high pitched sounds before Rogue laughed and helped the excited brunette close the door and catch up with Kara.

"This is gonna be so much fun!" Kitty seemed to be barely able to keep herself from phasing through the floor as she bounded ahead of the group as they made their way downstairs towards to the level that held the gym and Danger Room. Rogue had convinced her to not drown Kara in questions and promised she'd ask about their missing werewolf friend later. Luckily Kitty seemed to have something else to distract her ... for the moment.

The group was walking instead of taking the elevator after Kara had bared her teeth at the moving box and had prowled straight for the staircase.

"Fun?" Kara rumbled out uncertainty. This was supposed to be training ... right? It had taken Raven, Kitty, Rogue and finally Ororo to convince Kara that morning during breakfast that first there was no mistake with her updated schedule and then that going back downstairs to the Danger Room for training was a good idea.

"Course it'll be fun! Now that you're done with - well you-know-your-evaluation," Kitty rushed out, "you'll get placed in a group and then you get to train to be an X-Man." Kitty looked starry eyed at the idea, earning a groan from Raven and Rogue to step a bit closer to Kara as Kitty continued to gush.

"It'll be fine. They put us all inta groups for training. Most everyone in the school gets self-defense with Professor Logan in groups of like five or eight. Then there's the junior team that's run by Scott and Jean. Course after that there's the X-Men." Rogue explained, Kara nodding her head though still not getting how this was supposed to be fun.

Training was never fun.

"Yea ... fine." Kara rumbled, cracking her neck as the group kept walking, though Raven gave Kara a few extra glances as the group headed for the girls locker room.

Being in the younger group and there for self-defense, the girls didn't have assigned lockers like the X-Men and instead headed for the pile of folded training uniforms. They weren't particularly impressive, not much more then black tops and bottoms with some light protection at the knee and elbow, a yellow "X" on both shoulders.

While everyone else started sharing their own ideas on future uniforms, Kara just held a top up at arms length with a clear frown on her face. Glancing around, Kara popped a claw and was about to make some adjustments when Ilyanna stopped her short.

"What are you doing?!" The slip blond called out, the attention turning towards Kara who had yet to put her hand down.

"Can't train in this." Kara rumbled quietly as she shot a look around the locker room, unsure what she'd done now. This was actually the first time she'd been with the entire group in a while, particularly just the girls, and wasn't exactly loving having everyone looking at her.

"We're not allowed to make any changes. Not yet anyway." Rogue explained with a shrug as she kicked her boots into an open locker and started getting changed. Kara saw everyone else getting changed and with a growl of resignation started doing the same. It was hot in the uniform. And it wasn't easy to move around.

"I can't _wait_ to get our own uniforms. I hear Professor Storm is in charge of designing them but you think she'd take my ideas?" Kitty wondered outloud as she quickly slipped on the plain uniform. It wasn't a secret that Kitty had pages of drawings upstairs with her own uniform ideas. Including some for Rogue, Mako, Illyana and basically the entire group.

Once everyone was changed they headed towards the Danger Room. Kara made sure she was the last one, quickly shooting a look around before slicing a hole for her tail, earning a brief sense of relief.

Kara stepped into the Danger Room and watched as everyone started stretching and for some reason Bolin doing a bad imitation of punching the air. Logan was leaning against a wall and nodded towards the feline who took the hint and came over.

"I want you to just hang over here for now Salem. Take it in. We'll talk after." Logan spoke quietly enough that she knew no one else could hear and not really having any issues with sitting out, Kara nodded and dropped to her haunches, content to watch for now.

Logan called everyone to attention and after shutting down a few questions from Kitty and Bolin about Kara not joining, got the kids into pairs and started running them through a number of self-defense exercises. The entire 'training' took close to an hour, during which Kara hadn't moved beyond her tail swaying slowly behind her and a slight tilt of her head. As the kids let out a mock cheer at being released, Logan made a quick gesture with his hand that got Kara to stay where she was.

Jean was in next with most of the junior team. She glanced over at Kara once but beyond that seemed content to ignore her, which suited Kara just fine. Ever since that time in the woods, Kara had gotten the strong sense that Jean didn't like her much. Or at least she certainly scented on edge whenever Kara passed her by.

Kara continued to watch as Jean, Remy, Jason, Bobby, and a few other older students Kara didn't know the name of - oh and Tabby - ran through a number of exercises, fighting as a team, and taking turns sparring with each other. Ororo and Amara had joined, Kara assumed to run point.

As the last of them left, Logan stepped back inside the Danger Room and headed over to the still pantheress.

"You get why I had you sit out?" Logan asked, his tone casual but his gaze was serious. Kara had been wondering the same thing at first but had quickly realized the answer.

"They're not trained." Kara rumbled out, Logan noting that Kara wasn't looking directly at him, but someplace far away.

"They're trained. Just for somethin' else." Logan corrected. Kara let that sit for a moment and finally looked up at Logan.

"What was I trained for?" Kara asked the question Logan had been working on since he first laid eyes on Kara. The image on the small feral slicing and shooting her way through her evaluation replaying in his mind ... along with the other things he'd seen.

"That's what we're gonna find out." Logan answered and took a ready position across from Kara, who slowly looked him over and with a small nod, rolled her shoulders and took position across from him.

"Ain't you hot Salem?" Logan's tone was critical, though the smirk wasn't, and with a quick few slashes, Kara's 'uniform' closely mimicked her preferred style of no sleeves and cropped hem ... though she left the pants. Kara took a deep breath of relief and settled across from the older feral again. Logan nodded.

"Now ... let's see what you can do."

* * *

Over the next two weeks Kara fell into a new rhythm.

She returned to classes in her preferred seat in the back near the window. She even managed to wear something other then running shorts and a tank top one day without Kitty bugging her about it. The group had done an almost good job of not acting ... strange ... at her reappearance. Kitty and Rogue doing their best to run interference, the two girls handling most questions tossed the quiet feline's way. Kara might not have said anything but ... she appreciated it.

Speaking of appreciation, Raven would never admit it out loud but it was glad to have her roommate back.

Bolin had pointed out the empath actually smiling on their way to breakfast which earned a quick smack in the back of the head from Mako and a roll of the eyes from Raven. Though the smirk wasn't gone for long. Sure Raven preferred being alone - or at least away from the over-talkative and overall disgusting student body - but it wasn't exactly enjoyable being _alone _all the time. And trading insults with Jason and Remy didn't count. The similarly quiet pantheress was someone that she didn't feel the need to be careful around ... or whatever. That and she was developing a great taste in music. Raven couldn't let that die.

Training with Logan was the new element. Though Kara wasn't used to this type of training.

At first Logan and her would spar at half-speed, the pair seemingly doing a complicated dance more than a fight. Logan didn't say anything while they sparred but quietly cataloged at least six different fighting styles and the way the girl moved and anticipated. Logan wanted to know what the younger feral could do ... and if she could control it.

That was another thing ... 'control.' Logan seemed particularly focused on that as far as Kara was concerned. But it did have at least _some_ benefits. He introduced her to 'meditating' which she didn't quiet understand at first but the dark feral found herself turning to when things got ... too loud. It was like she could focus on one thing ... just breathing ... and that helped things slow down.

Rahne had found her doing it in the woods more than once and had tried sneaking up on her feral friend. So far without success as each time Kara had managed to pounce on the wolf first.

As expected, the rest of the group did make a few comments about her training alone. I mean it was a tradition at Xavier's for everyone to start off in groups. They trained in groups and either stopped there or eventually joined a team. The X-men ... Excalibur ... X-Factor ... it just seemed strange that Kara was off on her own.

But Kara knew why.

"Dangerous." Kara's rumble caught Logan off guard, her rumble not a question as the pair finished a simulation taking down some low level members of the Brotherhood. The pantheress finding the focus on 'non-lethal' more annoying then difficult. It felt like a half-measure. Like a crutch.

"Them?" Logan's tone clear that he disagreed. Kara could practically take the Brotherhood out on her own if not for the numbers. Well that and he refused to let her run the sim with a gun.

"Me." Kara replied as she flexed her claws a couple times, as if judging just how dangerous she was for the first time. Logan let the melodrama slide as he picked up his towel.

"You've been hangin' with these kids too much Salem. Since when is bein dangerous a bad thing?" Logan asked with his brow raised, unsure where this was coming from.

There was a bit of quiet as Kara just kept looking at her claws.

"Think I'll hurt friends." Kara's tone wasn't heated but the look she was giving Logan was enough.

"Never said that Salem. So far only thing I've seen you do is protect 'em." Logan smoothly slipped into a lotus sitting position while Kara dropped to her preferred virasana. They typically ended their training sessions this way.

"Then why train alone?" Kara asked what everyone else had been wondering.

"I wanted to see what ya had." Logan replied evenly. Kara's brow furrowed for a few moments as the two sat in silence as Kara worked to actually use her words.

"Wanted to see control." Kara's rumble the first tone of challenge.

"That so?" Logan's rumble right back matching hers.

"Always." Kara shot back, but Logan didn't respond beyond sitting a bit straighter as suddenly Kara's hackles shot straight up before she rolled backwards and onto all fours as Sabertooth suddenly appeared towering between the pair of ferals.

At first, Logan didn't react ... he didn't even say anything, his eyes on the pantheress only as he let her growls fill the space.

"You know Creed." Logan's tone was steady as Kara remained tensed and locked onto Sabertooth.

"I - no." Kara managed out, shaking her head slightly but never taking her eyes off of Creed. His claws. His sadistic smirk. That face.

"Bullshit." Logan shot back and as Creed took a step closer to Kara she took a larger one back, her tail whipping behind her as claws left marks on the floor, "how do you know him?"

"C- can't. Don't know." Kara growled out, her breathing picking up. Internally, the seemingly always stoic pantheress was a sudden rush of emotions, roaring at herself ... she knew this wasn't real. She _knew _it. But the instinct to fight or run for miles ... it was so strong.

"Can't or don't?" Logan pushed, feeling like he was as close to answers as he'd been since first finding Kara in the hole.

"I ... I'm not -" Kara entire body was tensed, her shoulders bunched as she was practically flat to the floor, Creed now steadily walking towards her and Kara equally padding backwards. Logan noticed it was the first time he'd seen the kid back down from anything ... including him.

"Creed the one you're runnin' from? Is he the one you're afraid of?" Logan growled as he watched Kara fight something he couldn't see ... something inside of herself as she clearly struggled to just admit what he already knew. The girl knew Creed and she wanted to run from him and kill him at the same time. The real question now was only how and why?

"Not weak." Kara snarled, suddenly stopping from backing down, her gaze still only on Sabertooth. She knew he wasn't here. But - it still hurt - why did it still have to hurt? At the same time a different part of Kara - a harsh part - lashed out at herself.

"Prove it." Logan was back on his feet as Kara let out something closer to a scream of rage than a roar as the feral lost it - pushed over the edge as she tore into Creed. Logan had made sure this model wouldn't fight back, not having any intention of locking the kid in a room with any form of Creed that could hurt her, but the rage he saw pouring out of the pantheress was there. It was personal.

Kara kept at it, breaking down and tearing into the still smirking Sabertooth until she eventually ran out of steam and the program, picking up on her slowing heartrate, ended with Kara on her knees, taking deep breaths as she shook from the adrenaline dump.

The danger room was silent again for a while, nothing but the reverberations on the metal from Kara's breathing. Logan gave the kid some time to come down, a low growl as he stepped closer and crouched down the only remains of her feral state. Kara wasn't sure she had the energy at the moment to even glare at Logan ... but she managed it.

"C- can't." Kara rumbled out, doing her best to hide that she was still shaking, her hackles yet to fully settle. Logan nodded, putting an arm under the pantheress as he helped her up.

"Enough for today Salem. Head up to your room and take the rest of the day off. We'll pick this up next time." Logan hadn't been sure what would happen but he'd been close enough to know the kid was gonna need some time to recoup. He'd told Raven at breakfast to make sure the feline wasn't disturbed the rest of the day. He was sure she'd figure out how.

Kara glanced up at Logan, giving the spot Creed had disappeared a final look before nodding her head and with a sigh, dropping back to all fours as she padded out of the Danger Room.

The young feral acted on instinct and somehow managed to avoid anyone who'd actually speak to her, most kids outside enjoying what might have been the last bits of good weather before the real cold came on, and with relief, Kara managed make it to her room in peace.

Raven looked up at the creak of the door opening and had to glance down to catch sight of her roommate but her book slowly dropped to her lap as she watched Kara actually seem to struggle to make it to her bed.

"Are you ... what the hell happened?" Raven hadn't given Professor Logan's comment this morning to keep an eye on her roommate much thought beyond putting on some music to drown out any noise and grabbing a couple waters and protein bars and placing them by Kara's bed but Kara was looking ... rough. She hadn't been under the impression Kara was in detention with Wolverine but even then Remy and Jason hadn't come out of one of those looking this worn down.

"Kara do you -"

"Tired. Head hurts." Kara growled in between chugging down two bottles of water before collapsing into her bed and seemingly dropping immediately to sleep.

"Okay ..." Raven's tone was skeptical but she stuck to their room for the rest of the day, only once having to use her powers keep their door closed and shooting a text to the 'group' to mind their business for once. When Raven finally left to do some quick research in the library and grab dinner, she came back to find Kara still asleep. The only evidence she had woken at all the remains of the protein bars and two more empty water bottles.

But Raven paused as she was headed over to her bed, her powers picking something up ... which was new. One of the many reasons she preferred rooming with Kara was the feral seemed to never ... well she would never say 'feel anything' ... but never so much that it triggered her empathic powers. It was a welcome relief from the overally hormonal teenagers she was always surrounded by.

But - but she was definitely getting something. Raven knew what it was but looking back over at Kara she was still surprised by it. Looking closer Raven noticed that the pantheress might have been asleep but she certainly wasn't resting. The tail twitching over the side of the bed, the claws sunk into the mattress, the forehead pressed into her pillow ...

"You're scared." Raven muttered to the quiet room, feeling bad at how surprised she felt. Though that quickly turned to anger at whatever Professor Logan was up to but just as quickly to curiosity. Because this raised the question: what was the seemingly always in control feline afraid of?

* * *

"You can do a better little one." and Piotor chuckled a little in amusement as the usually unreadable feline gave him a look that could almost be interpreted as a teenager eyeroll.

"The measurements are correct" she rumbled but the big man shook his head.

"Net, not what I meant. Measurements are perfect. Too perfect. This, this almost look like photograph." Kara cocked her head, so what was the problem then? She looked at the wall where the other kids had their 'art and crafts' all pinned up for display. Sometimes Professor Rasputin put them throughout the school. Kara had only agreed to attend his class with the promise that would NEVER happen. Well she thought hers was - well it looked like something at least. Everybody else's work read like disjointed blobs of nothing to her.

Kitty's one had glitter for some reason, Rogue's was a bunch of shapes and words, and Mako's ... well she wasn't exactly sure what his had on it but it smelled.

"But I don't want photograph…" and Kara was starting to understand why Raven liked rolling her eyes so much and settled for fixing her amber gaze straight on the giant Russian.

"I want ... feeling." and the panthress' face shifted from annoyed to confused as she was passed a new piece of paper and some pastels.

"Can't do feeling." and Colossus laughed before signalling for her to join him at the easel, seemingly not noticing what she had pointed out. Kara growled as she took her seat, tail thumping a little as she started to sketch out a skeleton for her-

"No." and there he was standing over her again.

"From here." and Kara gave a strange look as he pointed to his chest and then to hers.

"From the heart." Piotor clarified before drawing all the blinds and clearing away all the art models, leaving the panthress alone with nothing to draw reference from.

Kara snarled as her tail flicked. It had been an hour and she had drawn- she had drawn… This was so stupid and just so ugly. Why was everything just so ... complicated here. Ask her to sketch out the whole mansion from a birds eye view. Two point perspective, three point perspective ... whatever, she could do it. She knew her, her vantage points, values, contrast, anatomy. She _could_ draw! It was one of the few things she was actually good at. Least that's what Rogue and Kurt had told her a bunch of times. But thinking of her - her friends got her thinking about her training. Which got her thinking about Logan. Which got her thinking about -

"Hate it." Kara huffed, dropping the pencil she'd been using before suddenly grabbing her things and darting out of the window before Piotr could even get a word in. He looked at the spot where the feline had disappeared before letting out a huff of disappointment ... before he looked back over at the now abandoned easel.

At first, the broad Russian smiled at what he saw. But the more he looked, the more the smile faded.

"Feeling ..." Piotr thought to himself as he carefully folded up the page and tucked it in his portfolio.

* * *

"What happened?" Storm rejoined the rest of the X-Men outside the still smoldering remains of what had once had been - supposedly - a Mutant Response Division facility, a government agency focused on the 'rehabilitation' of mutants ruled to be too dangerous for the rest of society but hadn't actually broken any laws. Those mutants ended up in prisons ... for a little while at least.

The X-Men had taken in a few new mutant refugees that had brought this particular facility to their attention. It wasn't facilitating anyone ... the staff had been selling mutants to the highest bidder. Mutants in America had it better then in some other parts of the world but this wasn't something new and all the information the Professor X needed to hear to send in the X-Men to investigate.

While Logan had been for dropping the X-Wing right on their front door and tearing the place to the ground, Xavier was more cautious, not feeling the time was right for a direct assault on MRD, and instructed the team to head for the off-site base the warden and his men had been using to smuggle the unfortunate mutants away from the facility to their eventual destination ... and likely enslavement ... or worse.

But when the X-Men had arrived at the collection of low slung warehouses they'd found still smoldering ashes, trashed vehicles, torn open cages ... and bodies.

"Jail break? The mutants that pointed us here managed to escape ... maybe some others followed their lead? Tore the place down as they left?" Iceman proposed, glancing around at the wreckage and doing his best to count how many it would take.

"No jail break." Logan muttered, the last to return from taking in the compound. He'd found tracks he scented as the remaining mutants ... he hoped to hell they kept running.

"What makes you say that?" Scott asked, his tone a tad deeper then necessary even as he tried to not make it seem like this was his first scene like ... like this.

"For one Scooter this happened from the outside in ... not the other way round. Second, if you paid attention, you'd see those cages were slashed and bent in not out. And third... all these assholes died from the same man." Logan growled as he took off his cowl with a grimace. The way these guys were killed ... one by one ... clean slash marks ... laid out like that as if to prove a point ... Romanoff's warning rang in his head.

_"I'd go straight into that school of yours and put an end to it. Cause Logan I don't care what kind of weapon that kid might be ... it's going to bring something worse to your door."_

"Logan?" Beast had clearly been saying something but Logan's movement had the team looking back at him.

"Time to go." Wolverine growled as he turned back towards the jet, "unless we wanna have a chat with the SHIELD team headed this way."

The rest of the X-Men took a second to figure out what Logan was talking about but the sound of helicopters was getting close enough for someone without super-hearing to pick it up.

Without another word the X-Men headed for the jet. The fact it was SHIELD showing up and not MRD not being missed by Logan or Ororo who shared the same look of concern ... but that was a fight for another day.


	14. What's a Smore?

**_Thanks as always to the new followers/favs and special thanks to Cheshire and Chimera629 for the reviews. Cheshire glad you appreciate why it takes me some time to get these chapters out ... gotta plant those seeds and who doesn't love a good payoff? Plenty more of that to come. And yea ... Kara's background won't be a mystery forever. Oh and more Rahne to come._**

**_If you can't tell I love me some reviews so ... yea. There's my one pitch. We got some more fluff in this chapter though not to worry plenty of action to come. Read and review!_**

* * *

"Somethin' on your mind comrade?" Logan grunted as he pulled a bit of uniform that had managed to heal itself into his shoulder. Hated when that happened.

"It is about the pantera." Piort answered, taking off his own uniform with a shrug. The pair had been out with Jean and Bobby on another pickup, this time the local police department and what had looked like most of the town not taking kindly to the X-Men showing up to interrupt their lynch mob.

"What bout her?" Logan was already back in his jeans and tshirt, the whisky in his room calling to him and not really feeling like bothering with yet another 'teacher' with comments about Salem. Seemed everyone had their own ideas of what was best for her.

"This." Colossus pulled a folded up piece of paper from his locker and offered it to Logan who just stared at it for a moment before taking it and unfolding it without much thought.

"Never been much for art tinman ... what's this supposed to be?" Logan grumbled, giving the clash of colors on the page a once over before passing it back to the tall Russian but Piotr pointed back at the page.

"You have been holding Kara too close. The _devushka _needs to be with ... friends. Like the rest." Piotr explained, Logan looking from him back to the page.

"Appreciate the insight Pete but Salem ain' like the rest of the kids here. Besides trainin' with me a couple times a week ain' pullin' her from her friends." Logan's tone clear he disagreed but Piotr shook his head and pointed back to the art.

"Kara feels differently." Logan grudgingly looked back down and actually took some time. He saw where Peter was pointing to ... it was a black dot near the bottom of the page. In fact it was the only solid shape in the whole piece. Everything else was a clash of colors, melding and crashing together ... but the black dot was underneath it all and a small space of solid white surrounded it.

Logan took a breath and slowly got back to his feet, the page already folded and in his back pocket as he slammed his locker shut.

"You plannin on just doin' art lessons tonight or you least mind doin' some drinkin' while you're at it?" Logan rumbled as he shot Colossus a look as he headed for the exit. Piotr smiled and slapped Logan on the back as he dropped in next to him.

"_Vsegda_ \- always comrade." Piotr laughed as the two headed back upstairs.

* * *

"We gonna talk about it?" Logan took a drink from his bottle as he kept an eye on Kara. They'd been at it for almost two hours since 5 this morning.

"About what?" Kara didn't look over at Logan as she dropped to her haunches with a huff.

"You know what." Kara had trained with Logan two times since he'd introduced Creed and so far the pantheress had simply refused to even acknowledge what had happened.

Logan had even popped Creed up again at their last session but this time Kara had seemingly been prepared. She'd just sat there ... her eyes fixed only on Logan until he'd turned the sim off and Kara had waited for Logan to dismiss her which she did without a word and only a pair of claw marks gauged into the floor.

"No," Kara brushed past the question with a shrug as she rubbed her shoulder, "again?" Kara asked as she looked up from her crouch at him, her sweat steadily dripping onto the floor as she ignored the water Logan had told her to start bringing.

"Tired Salem?" Logan smirked, but Kara just got back to her feet and headed over to the sparring circle the Danger Room had constructed for them. A soft wide circle of sand in the otherwise modern looking dome. The sand doing a better job of absorbing the claws of two ferals training. For a moment Logan thought she might complain.

But she didn't.

The kid never complained. Never asked to skip a training. Never asked to train earlier or later in the day. Never pestered him to be let out early. Not like every other kid he worked with or had in detention. They always complained. Constantly. At first Logan had appreciated it ... he wished more kids were like the disciplined younger feral. But Logan's mind drifted back to that drawing. Kara's drawing.

"Hmmm." Logan rumbled to himself and slowly walked over to his place opposite Kara. He matched her unblinking stare that only a predator could pull off and knew that the kid was tired ... from the breathing to the tail to the way she was holding herself ... and for the first time considered the possibility that Kara didn't know that she could admit she was tired.

The thought didn't sit well with the older feral. His conversation with Peter from the other night crossing his mind again. That black dot among a sea of colors, separated and alone ...

"We're done for today Salem. Hit the showers and get to class." Logan's instruction not getting much reaction from Kara who dropped from her ready stance and headed for the girls lockers. Logan noted how Kara didn't look at him as she passed, her gaze fixed straight ahead.

To be honest, Kara was glad training was over. She had to study for her science fnal and she wanted to get to breakfast before the older boys got there. They always took ... well most of everything. It was very annoying. And they smelled terrible.

Besides she had training scheduled with Wolverine for tomorrow night.

Kara cracked her neck as she tossed her training uniform into her backpack and quickly showered off before changing again into her preferred shorts and tank.

She wondered if Logan would try _him _again. Why else cut training short? A low growl escaped Kara before she gave her head a hard shake as she gripped her shoulder. She didn't think about him. Any of it.

She was in control. Safe.

"Screw you." Kara rumbled as she grabbed her bag and stalked back upstairs. Logan could try whatever he wanted. She'd be ready.

* * *

_The Next Day ..._

"You comin' Kara?" Rogue asked as lunch winded down, Mako and Bolin pausing the constant steam of food into their mouths at the question. Kitty of course didn't pause.

"Course she's coming! Right?" Kitty's enthusiasm high as always regardless of whatever particular attitude Kara might have been feeling. Which as always was difficult to figure out.

"Where?" Kara rumbled back quietly, unsure what they were talking about. Then again it was a constant at this point.

"To za campfire. Ve're all going." Kurt explained, teleporting over to their side of the table with a smile. Kara glanced around to see everyone nodding and clearly excited.

"Campfire?" Kara's question coming off more as unsure as opposed to confused. The kids were used to Kara needing some 'normal' things explained.

"Yea ... I mean we only got like two more finals left and Kitty is supposed to go back home before the weekend so we're all gonna head down after dinner tonight to this spot near the lake. Bolin and Rogue set it up yesterday. We got winter break coming up so thought it'd be fun." Kitty explained hurriedly, listing off a number of things Kara didn't understand including 'smores.'

"Can't. Training." Kara rumbled with a shrug, honestly okay with having an excuse ... though not particularly focused on why she was looking for one.

"No way! Oh c'mon Kara come on you train more than the junior team. Professor Logan's gotta give you at least one night off ... right?" Mako asked, the rest of the table encouraging Kara to either ask Logan to give her a break or just skip the training all together. Whatever that meant.

"Training." Kara repeated, her rumble a bit louder this time as she fixed her amber eyes on floor and headed off to Ororo's English class.

She just wanted to get through her day and get to sleep. No one needed - her brow furrowed ... no that wasn't right ... she tried again ... her not being there wouldn't make much of a difference anyways.

* * *

"In here Salem." Kara had decided to eat her dinner on the deck, the weather now far too cold for the rest of the students and she'd enjoyed the quiet. She'd slipped back inside to grab her extra training uniform and head down to meet Wolverine ... but it sounded like he was in the garage so Kara turned and headed down the hall to find Logan working on what looked like a new bike.

"Been a while since we talked in here." Logan rolled over to his workbench and grabbed the tool he was looking for and pushed back to the bike, "take a seat."

Kara rubbed her shoulder for a moment before pouncing onto a nearby roller. She was curious why Logan was in here and not down in the Danger Room. Though they had trained outside before ... maybe now they were going to use the garage?

A few minutes of silence passed as Kara's tail flicked behind her and Logan continued to work.

"Training?" Kara prodded.

"In a second," Logan took a breath and turned around to face the pantheress who met his gaze with her amber one, "you ain't goin' down to the lake tonight?"

"What?" Kara's ears shot straight up as her tail paused its swaying, clearly surprised by the question.

"Heard the other kids talkin' bout it. Thought you'd wanna be there." Logan prodded right back.

"I - we train tonight." Kara's rumble unsure. She didn't understand ... was this a test? A way to see if she was slipping or -

"Not anymore." Logan smirked at Kara's growl. Kid thought she was in trouble or actually pissed at no training. Definitely a first.

I did something wrong." Kara didn't phrase it as a question. It was a statement as she tensed. Amber eyes bore holes into him. This was bad and the panthress started to cycle through all the possible scenarios. Logan wouldn't train her anymore. She wasn't allowed to with - with her friends. So that was it. She was just going to just be kept here like - like before. It was -

"Heh ... wouldn't be so bad if you did somethin' wrong every so often Salem." Kara looked both insulted and confused at that but Logan continued, "But you should be gettin' ready to head to the lake ... good to be on the same page as your new team."

Logan let Kara process that for a moment, he had planned to break it to her as low key as possible and it seemed to be working as the pantheress looked back at Logan with her brow furrowed until it dawned on her.

"Wait I ... I can train ... with team?" Kara soft rumble was steady as always but her tail waved hopefully behind her.

"You gonna kill anybody?" Logan asked, his smirk even wider now as Kara gave the question serious thought.

"I'll…" she struggled for a moment. Deep in thought.

"I'll protect." I mean she'd try not killing anyone but she didn't like breaking promises. Raven had explained that promises were important. Keeping your word. Besides protecting seemed like a better alternative … so yea. Actually the more she thought about it, the more Kara decided she liked that answer.

"Fair enough. Then yea Salem, you start trainin' with your friends next week. You got the rest of this one off. And you'll be havin' private sessions with me outside the Danger Room every so often. That sound good?"

"Good."

Logan was all too experienced with seeing an overjoyed student dart off with the announcement of cancelled training but surprisingly or unsurprisingly at this point ... Kara stayed still aside from her tail swaying.

"Well what ya waitin for?" and he watched a little confused as Kara made her way off the roller and very slowly padded out of the garage ... the always fluid feline suddenly moving as if unsure of herself. And then he watched, now more than a little amused, as Kara stopped just before driveway and turned back around.

"I-" she had started before going silent again. Now fiddling with her claws ... Kara wasn't sure what ... to say ... she didn't know what - what were you supposed to do? Logan didn't think she was dangerous. He trusted her. To be with her - her friends.

"Thank you." Kara finally managed to rumble - actually Logan actually thought it closer to a purr, something Logan definitely hadn't heard from her before, and that's when Kara finally darted off. Logan sat there for a few seconds longer before chuckling and with a shake of his head turning back to his bike.

Things had finally seemed to quiet down concerning the pantheress. He'd frozen out Fury and threatened to add the Avengers to that list until he'd called off the SHIELD team Logan had marked a few miles from the Mansion weeks ago. No whispers regarding a missing feral had popped up in over a month. The only thing nagging at Logan was the fact that Widow had now gone completely dark. Clint was out looking but ... he'd likely do his own visit to Russia with Pete if he didn't come up with anything.

Logan opened another beer. The kid was gonna be alright.

Kara didn't bother grabbing anything and sprinted on all fours straight from the garage towards the lake. She didn't even know why she was sprinting so fast ... a few minutes ago she'd been telling herself that she didn't care. It didn't matter if she was with her friends or not.

But Kara just picked up speed as she spotted the group coming from the other end of the mansion. Usually the thought of being with the entire group didn't exactly seem like fun to the pantheress. But ... Kara blinked at the realization ... she wanted to be there. Was it to protect them?

Kara put that thought away for another time as she silently slipped in next to Raven, who managed to keep her surprise at the sudden appearance of the dark pantheress next to her to an equally subtle eye roll ... though there was a grin.

The moon was almost full and with the fresh powder from the day's first snow covering the ground Kara both managed to stand out and almost disappear all at once. Though Kara's appearance wasn't a secret very long despite her best efforts.

Once the rest of the group realized Kara had shown up there was a bunch of 'welcomes' and Kurt practically teleporting into the young feral with a clearly mischievous smirk, the two quickly restarting their never ending game of tag, as the kids headed for the lake to a chorus of growls and bamfs.

Bolin and Rogue had done a good job of creating a pit and after gathering enough dry wood, protected under an old blanket, it didn't take long for Mako to get a serious fire going. The logs had been pulled together earlier and soon the entire group was huddled around the warm flames, exchanging stories, watching Jubilee's fireworks and taking turns poking fun at each other.

Kara was sitting between Rogue and Raven with her back resting on their shared log. I mean this was kinda nice, Kara considered, just watching everyone doing their own thing ... and Kara slowly relaxed, enjoying the warmth from the fire.

Then suddenly her ears swiveled back towards the forest. Kara turned around to fix the woods with a glare but soon it was Kara's turn to grin.

"Hey! Kara where you goin?!" Bolin called out as the group turned to see Kara calmly pad off into the forest without a word. Everyone took a few seconds to look at each other.

"Are we - should someone go after her?" Warren asked as everyone gave a collective shrug.

But almost as quickly as Kara disappeared she returned ... and she wasn't alone.

The entire group seemed to forget how to breathe as Kara calmly came back to the circle and slid over the log to reclaim her seat ... and with one last look over her shoulder at the woods ... soon joined by a familiar figure. Green eyes, red fur ...

"Is - is that ..." Mako managed out.

"Rahne!" Kitty squeaked out, causing the red she-wolf to backpedal a bit, clearly still very skittish and unsure. Rahne kept shooting looks between the forest and Kara, who had her eyes fixed on the fire before shooting a meaningful look at her friends, who took the hint and did their best to pretend Rahne's sudden reappearance was totally normal. Which they did ... or at least tried to.

Kara let out a low rumble that Rogue and Raven were barely able to feel never mind hear but it seemed to calm Rahne enough that she slowly closed the distance and settled herself next to Kara with a soft thump.

With some effort and a few elbows from Mako and Kurt, the group returned to normal with some nervous laughter mixed in. Warren started passing out smores and after some trial and error even Kara managed to figure it out and after tossing one to Rahne she tentatively bit into her own and Kara saw the teen untense a bit as her tail began to wag.

"Would you ... can I?" Kara glanced up to find Kitty standing in front of her though her eyes were fixed on Rahne who seemed suddenly very shy despite her easily being twice the size of the diminutive brunette.

"Not up to me." Kara rumbled out, though subtly she had a hand resting on Rahne's flank out of sight, calming the nervous teen to stick around.

Kitty looked briefly back to Kara before taking a hesitant step closer to Rahne before seeming to run out of patience and suddenly lunging forward to wrap the red wolf in a hug. Kara had half-lept to a crouch concerned that Rahne would bolt but-

"I missed you so much! WherehaveyoubeenI'vebeensoso_worried..._" Kitty's voice mostly swallowed up by Rahne's auburn fur and the giant wolf was now laying her face against Kitty's shoulder. The rest of the group had silently watched the display but had enough sense to just smile at each other and get back to the fire as Mako refreshed it.

Kara rumbled and just as she was about to slide into a more comfortable position against the log, she jerked back as Rogue dropped down next to her and bravely - though unapologetically - leaned on the pantheress' shoulder, snuggling in for warmth.

There was a chuff but Rogue hushed her.

"Aw c'mon ... I'm freezing. Besides, Kitty seems cozy enough." Glancing over Kara saw that Kitty had actually passed out, snuggled into Rahne who had practically enveloped her friend. Kara looked the other way and saw Raven rubbing her forehead but noticing Kara's stare ... and then Rogue ... the young feral soon had the usually moody empath leaning on her other side.

"Headache." Raven muttered with a small shrug as she took Rogue and Kitty lead and rested her head on Kara's fuzzy shoulder.

Kara looked up at the bright November sky, for the first time realizing just how much had changed since waking up here, and let out a low rumble, earning a new fit of giggles from Rogue and a soft poke from Raven.

Kara curled her tail around the three of them, finally in a comfortable position… she felt safe.

* * *

The next morning the entire school was slow to wake up. Finals were finally over and that meant the teachers were just as satisfied to sleep in as the weather truly turned to winter.

Logan was no exception although he was tired for other reasons having been up late helping Daredevil clean up some Hand business in the city. He'd managed to get back and fall into bed (without Elektra this time) for a couple hours of sleep but it wasn't long before he was up and in his usual spot in the far corner of the kitchen.

"You seen Forge?" Logan took a breath before he slowly folded his paper and looked up at Summers as he picked up his coffee and took a sip as if carefully considering the question before answering.

"Nope." Logan smirked as always at the chance to rile the kid up. Took himself way too seriously for a pup.

"He was supposed to help me with some upgrades to jet today but the logs say he didn't come back last night ... hey where you going?" Scott started to follow Logan who'd gotten up and headed for the exit, shooting a look over at Kara, earning a different kind of smirk.

"Not your business Slim. Go bug 'Ro if you're worried 'bout Forge." Logan's tone enough for Scott to stop following him and shake his head as he changed course to start looking for the storm goddess. Logan could hear Scooter's teeth grinding as he walked away.

Logan sipped his coffee as he walked through the halls, most students either still asleep or wise enough to avoid him, as he headed for Xavier's office.

Logan turned into the right hallway when he stopped, his head tilted to the side as he listened ... was that an explosion?

Logan took a step back the way he came when the power in the Mansion suddenly cut out. Forge had upgraded the mansion's security years ago in case there was ever a system wide power outage with a series of generators to keep the place running. But it took a few minutes to kick in ...

"Forge." Logan muttered to himself. The mug broke on the wooden floors as Logan sprinted the last dozen feet to Professor X's office, practically breaking the door off its hinge.

"Chuck!" Logan rushed in as he saw Xavier sprawled on the floor near his bookcase. He rolled him over, relieved for a moment his friend was still breathing, but he was sweating and his head shook as if fighting off a bad dream.

"Chuck what the hell happened? Nevermind don't matter. I'm taken' you to Hank." Logan moved to lift Xavier and take him down to the infirmary but he gripped Logan's arm as his eyes shot open.

"The students." Xavier managed out before groaning and gripping his head in pain.

Logan heard the shots but felt the explosion as the entire room burst into flames.


	15. Attack on Xavier's

**_As always thanks for the new followers/favs and special shoutout to Cheshire and FeralHyena (welcome!). Cheshire ... yea papa Logan is always a good thing to see. Someone has to be out there watching out for Kara even if he needs a bit of help sometimes. FeralHyena appreciate the love and did my best to post a bit sooner then usual. Now enough with the fluff ... let's get to it ..._**

* * *

Finals were finally over. Kitty and Rogue had spent most of the last two nights in the library buried under their piles and piles of notes. They'd had to beg some energy drinks off of Jason just to keep going ... but they'd made it. Barely.

The pair had slept in late enough that they didn't even bother putting on real clothes and just pulled sweatpants and favorite hoodies over their pajamas to go grab whatever they could from breakfast.

"Wanna grab Kara?" Rogue mumbled out, still rubbing sleep from her eyes. The two roommates hadn't had much time with the feral since the campfire. It seemed Kara preferred studying alone in the woods or with Ororo. With a nod towards the feline's and Raven's room Kitty and Rogue headed down the hall to check in with their resident pantheress.

Kara liked this song. It was a good song. It wasn't even one Raven had chosen ... she'd found it herself on Raven's computer. The song ... spoke to her? Did music do that? The video playing with it was cool too. Kara was debating this with herself when she spun around to find Kitty and Rogue staring at her open mouthed in the doorway.

"What?" Kara rumbled as she pulled her headphones down - Raven's headache had gotten worse from last night and Kara hadn't wanted to bug her - as her tail slowly stilled from the heavy swaying a moment before settling down to a more casual pace.

"Were you ... dancin'?" Rogue was too tired to keep the shock out of her voice. She knew what she had just seen but ... it was still hard to process the typically quiet and well stoic Kara dancing in her room. It was just so ... normal. Did Kara do normal?

"No," Kara's ears went flat automatically, "maybe ... that bad?" Kara hadn't really realized what she was doing.

"Bad? No! But also are you… ARE YOU WEARING JEANS?" Kitty had taken a second longer to process what she was taking in. Her whisper shout, somehow making Kara's ears go even flatter as she looked down at herself, suddenly certain she'd made a mistake.

The person in the video had jeans… and sure the other kids wore jeans too. Like all the time. But the jeans the singer in the video were wearing … Kara really liked the claw marks they had and basically tried to replicate the effect on her own. Sure she was kinda hot but it was really cold outside so it wasn't too bad. She liked how her fur showed.

"I thought looked ... cool?" Kara ran her claws over the fur on her shoulder as she regretted her decision to try something ... Raven was always telling her to try stuff. Ororo too. Kitty and Rogue shared another surprised look but now they were smiling. OK she looked stupid. Knew it was stupid idea. She -

"Definitely cool." Kitty grinned as Rogue quickly agreed, Kara eyed their faces cautiously for a moment before her tail couldn't help but pick up speed only to stop as Raven let out a growl of her own about being woken up at an ungodly hour. There were some sheepish apologies, more grumbling but soon the foursome were headed eagerly downstairs.

There was a fair amount of tired students and teachers wandering around the mansion that morning. Kitty actually had to phase through Jean who muttered almost an apology and something about a migraine before they made it to the kitchen.

After piling up a plate with some waffles and donuts (post-finals meals were the best) they all headed for their preferred long table by the window. It was almost 11 so the sun was out shining over the few inches of snow on the ground.

"So what do we want to do today?" Mako asked the assembled group as they finished up.

"Snowball vight?" Kurt asked while Bolin quickly nodded in agreement.

"Can we stick inside today? How bout some movies?" Rogue countered, never one to love the cold. Kara noticed Logan walking out with Scott and gave a little nod as the two headed elsewhere.

The debate on what to do next continued but Kara had her focus on Raven who was sitting across from the pantheress with her head in her hands. She scented ... off.

"Raven OK?" Kara rumbled when a number of things happened very quickly but felt like slow motion to Kara.

"Jean!" Kara heard Scott yell as his girlfriend dropped to the floor somewhere on the stairs just outside the kitchen as two other telepaths collapsed without warning at other tables. Raven let out a groan as she slumped against Warren who almost flew out of his char as Raven practically fell into his lap.

Kara jumped to hear feet but her ears swiveled towards what sounded like an explosion from miles away.

Everything went dark as everyone looked around. Dr. McCoy came in and calmly explained the power would be back on soon before seeing Jean and quickly ran over to see what was wrong. Raven was groaning as she pushed away from a now very confused Warren.

"Wh - what's going on?" Kitty and a number of other students looked around in confusion. Kara however didn't move as her hackles slowly rose.

**CLICK**

Kara spun to face the forest just in time to see the bullet pierce the glass before the bang of the shot hit her ears.

"AHH!"

"ROGUE!" Kitty had been standing next to Kara and on instinct had gone incorporeal ... just as the bullet passed through her and struck Rogue, the force of the bullet sending the young teen sprawling across the kitchen.

"Everyone down!"

"We're under attack!"

"What's happening!?"

"Help!"

"KARA NO!"

Beast had been trying to get everyone to cover but was too late as he yelled out to the dark feral as the next sound of breaking glass didn't come from a bullet ... but from Kara crashing through the glass doors as she streaked towards the tree line on all fours, a black missile on the white snow.

Kara barely noted the rocket screaming a couple hundred yards to her left as it struck the school with a massive explosion. No students there ... the dorms were on the other side of the building and a story up.

Can't focus on that.

Her focus was on getting to the treeline. To the humans she knew were firing at her friends. Get there. Stop them.

She would protect her friends.

She'd promised.

Kara maneuvered quickly, changing her angles and rolling constantly in an effort to take as little damage as possible from the hail of bullets now coming at her.

Though if Kara had been able to pay closer attention she may have noticed how the line of fire was just above her as the torrent of lead slammed into the mansion, effectively pinning everyone inside. And inside things were not going well.

"COVER!"

It was madness. A war zone.

The senior X-Men had trained for years to fight in almost every conceivable scenario ... but even they weren't prepared for the hail of bullets hammering their home. Everyone was taking cover behind the flipped thick, wooden tables and the island.

Ororo was down. Beast was tending to Rouge and two other students he'd managed to carry to cover to the living room.

"We've got to get out there!" Scott yelled over the chaos having made it the kitchen once Hank took Jean.

"Where's Logan?!" Bobby screamed right back, shooting walls of ice without looking in an attempt to provide more cover. But the bullets just kept coming.

That's when Mako saw the missile.

"Scott incoming!"

But Scott wasn't the one to hear the warning.

"AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"

The kitchen was suddenly silent as a massive black and purple wall - no a ... a _raven_ shot forward and standing over a story tall took the brunt of the explosion. The apparition only stood for a few moments ... until a dull hum proceeded the lights coming back on and a second later huge sheets of steel slammed down, covering all the doors and windows.

Kara was almost to her target as the sound of slamming metal reached her. Good ... they were safe.

The pantheress let out a roar as she hit the tree line and sank her claws into the first body she crashed into. She barley noticed the next explosion of charges creating a firewall between the forest and the school.

From there she operated on instinct and training. Throat. Never standing still. Artery. Gun on the ground takes another three down. There were dozens of them. Broken leg. Too many. Claws to the eyes. Shouting. Another two down. SO many guns. Snapped neck. Keep moving. Too many guns.

Kara let out a snarl. She was hit. Nothing vital. Didn't - didn't feel like a bullet. Slowing ... Logan voice in her head ... mixed with other ... needed some space. Deeper into the forest.

Kara moved to the trees, bounding off one to the other. The yells and shots getting dimmer. Just a little further before disappearing -

"GAHHHRRR!" Kara snarled in pain and surprise as she was suddenly yanked backwards, slamming into a tree before tumbling to the ground. Her leg was burning. She had just enough time to see the claws from the harpoon lodged into her thigh before she was pulled backwards another few feet.

That's when the truth hit Kara.

They weren't trying to kill her.

It was worse.

Kara managed to slice the line connected to the - the thing! embedded into her thigh but before she could take off another roar ripped out of the young feral as suddenly two more hits of pain sliced into her and she felt more claws dig into her left shoulder and another just above her right hip.

"It's this way!"

"Hold it down!"

"Fire! Fire!"

Kara lost all sense of control and was a tornado of claws and snarls as she dug her claws into the ground in an effort to drag herself away from danger. But it was too late ... all they'd needed was one and soon she was hit again and again and dragged further back. Kara managed to kill the next three men that got close, still desperately trying to get away, but with a sudden pull she was practically yanked off the ground.

"RAHHHHHHH!"

"Stay focused. Dose the target and we move. Control has EVAC in three minutes."

Kara roared and roared in fury and pain as she saw one of the soldiers come at her with a funny looking gun that she recognized. It was over ... she - she was going to go back. In the ground. In the dark. She - she didn't want to go!

"AWOOOOOO!" The lines holding Kara held firm as she suddenly went still as the soldiers she could see hesitated.

"What is that?"

"All mutants accounted for. Right?"

The soldier never got a chance to answer as suddenly there was a new round of gun shots as Kara collapsed to the ground with a grunt as two of the lines holding her dropped.

"It's a wolf!"

Kara's breathing was haggard as she tried rolling to her feet with a groan but her breathing actually stopped as the soldier she'd gauged to be in charge kicked her and was suddenly over her ... a harpoon straight through her chest forcing the fight out of her.

"Get the target prepared for transport." He ordered the two soldiers closest to him began to use the lines to wrap the still struggling pantheress as she tried to breath and fight them off. Or they were until suddenly one of the men disappeared beneath a growling fury of red fur and fangs.

"Get ... away ..." Kara managed out but Rahne just huffed and careful not to bite Kara used her teeth to pick the bloody feral off the ground using the cords still wrapped around her.

"Thank - RAHNE!" Kara's shout rang in the sudden silence after the shot as the Kara dropped back to the ground with a snarl as Rahne collapsed next to her.

"Finish the wolf. Take the target we need to move ... now!" Someone ordered as Kara struggled to break herself free. Rahne ... she - she wasn't moving. She had to get to Rahne. Someone was standing over them ... gun pointed at Rahne ...

"Big mistake. Pissin' me off."

Kara rolled to her side and as the entire clearing seemed to catch its breath.

"Wolverine." Kara managed out.

Kara had taken out fourteen attackers. Rahne three after her. That had left almost two dozen highly trained operatives armed with state of the art weaponry.

They never stood a chance.

Kara wasn't sure what happened ... for some reason her vision kept going out which was annoying ... but after the shouting, bullets, and screaming stopped she was in Logan's arms. She could move again but for some reason didn't really feel like it. Now that it was quiet ... everything hurt.

She heard someone talking ... it sounded kind of like her ...

"I don't want to go ... I don't want to go ..."

"I know Salem." Logan rumbled as he kept his hands on where the suddenly very small feral was bleeding the worst, shooting a look over at Scott and Bobby as they worked frantically but practiced on Rahne, "You're not goin' anywhere."


End file.
